Award-winning American actress, author and activist Jenifer Lewis is urging Barbadians to stand up and demand a sex offenders registry, imploring young people to organise and confront their Government on the issue.
She made the call during a youth engagement session recently at Frank Collymore Hall, Tom Adams Financial Centre in The City, held as part of the Division of Youth and Culture and the Office of Pan African Affairs and Heritage’s Season of Emancipation 2026 Marcus Garvey Day Celebrations.
Lewis was responding to a question from young participant Edwin Workman, who asked her to address the fact that Barbados does not have a sexual offenders registry.
The actress, who has publicly spoken about experiencing sexual abuse as a child, told young people not to be intimidated into silence.
“With that sex offender policy, rise up to your Government and make them,” she said, before urging the audience to mobilise around the issue.
“Don’t you be afraid. You take a whole bunch of people, a whole bunch, anybody that’ll go with you, and you confront them.”
Her comments formed part of a wider, deeply personal discussion about sexual abuse and the importance of speaking out.
Lewis revealed that she had been molested by the pastor of her church, describing the betrayal as having profound consequences for her childhood and her faith.
“When the pastor of my church touched me, he took everything from me. I was such a happy child, and then he betrayed me . . . and he was supposed to be a man of God.”
She urged anyone experiencing grooming or sexual abuse to tell someone they trust.
“If somebody touches you, if somebody even insinuates that they want to groom you, you tell somebody.”
Lewis stressed that young people should continue seeking help if they were not believed the first time.
“If they don’t listen, you go and tell somebody else. And if they don’t listen, you go and tell somebody else.”
She also encouraged survivors to document their experiences as a means of processing what happened.
“You go home and you get a book, a journal, and you write about it. Put it down and get it out of you.”
She reminded the audience that abuse was never the victim’s fault, telling them: “They were wrong and it was not your fault. You were a child.”
Back in May 2004, Minister of Youth, Sports and Community Empowerment Charles Griffith made a call for a national register for child sex offenders in Barbados. It came during debate on the report of the Child Protection Bill in the House of Assembly.
“I believe that there should be a national register with all paedophiles on this island. We have to protect what I believe is the most valuable of our citizens, our children.”
Child rights expert Faith Marshall-Harris also said last year that Barbados might need to consider a sex offenders registry with the high number of girls and boys being sexually assaulted. (DDS)
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