“Changing the Narrative” is the theme for the World Suicide Prevention Day (WSPD), September 10, 2025.

The aim is to start conversations by telling your story as a survivor or someone impacted by suicide.

As usual, The Caribbean Voice (TCV) is urging communities and groups everywhere to organize candlelight vigils throughout September, but especially on September 10 to mark WSPD this year.

TCV, a volunteer driven NGO focusing on mental health advocacy and activism, launched the Annual Anti-Violence Candlelight Vigil, to mark World Suicide Prevention Day in 2016.

The vigil was quickly extended to focus on violence in general, of which suicide and abuse are manifestations.

This year, we hope that vigils will be held across the Caribbean and in the Diaspora.

Each year over 720,00 persons die of suicide, which has become a public health crisis in many nations including Guyana.

This represents a global mortality rate of 9 people per 100,000 or one death every 40 seconds.

Males are two times more likely to die from suicide than are females. However, females are more likely to attempt suicide than are males. Globally youth suicide is increasing and is the third leading cause of death for young people 15-29 years.

Among Caribbean nations Guyana has the second highest suicide globally, at 40.8. Second among Caribbean nations, Suriname has a rate of 25.9 followed by Haiti with a rate of 11.2 and Cuba with a rate of 10.2

While a vigil, in itself, is not sufficient to tackle suicide and other forms of violence it can be one in a basket of measures.

Non-political in nature, the vigil serves to bridge all sorts of divides on the social landscape by bringing communities and groups together to be involved in anti-violence activism, while fostering the concept of communal action for community well-being.

When communities come together, they can begin to become more caring and build more togetherness

Vigils are inexpensive to organize with participants needing only candles or they can even use the light from their cell phones, diyas, bottle lamps or any safe source of light.

Organizers can choose to march around or within their communities, or from one point to another, engage in chanting slogans, assembly at a preselected point and have a keynote speaker address the gathering.

As has been done in the past by some entities, organizers can also include cultural performances as part of their vigils.

Other activities to mark WSPD include having community residents each light a candle or diya near a window of their homes at 8PM on September 10. Thus, even those not joining in vigils can still be involved in the observance.

As well those with cycles can ride around the communities with placards hanging around their necks.

Artists can draw their representations of suicide and abuse prevention, and these can be displayed at a prominent place in the community.

Singers can write and perform suicide and abuse prevention songs.

Poets can write appropriate poetry, which can be recited.

Families can also organize memorials for suicide victims.

And community leaders and activists can write letters to the media and/or to their politicians calling for measures to help prevent suicide and abuse and to help victims.

In fact. vigils:

Ø get communities/organization/people involved in anti-violence activism;

Ø address violence holistically;

Ø foster the concept of communal action for community well-being;

Ø enhance the process of community taking ownership for their safety;

Ø impact positive changes in communities;

Ø help to build change agents at the community level;

Ø bring communities together to develop activism consciousness;

Ø create a culture of activism as an approach to seek resolutions to issues faced by communities;

Ø build community togetherness and caring;

Ø create the environment for NGOs to collaborate with community leaders and organizations to hold community empowerment sessions and help implement anti-violence training;

Ø enhance NGO/NGO collaboration, thereby enabling more impactful work, more extensively and more cost effectively within communities;

Ø enable planning to habitually ensure that help will be sought for victims of violence at all times;

Ø follow up with meetings to craft community responses to violence;

Ø catalyze necessary meetings to help tackle violence within and against the community.

Ø make violence prevention everybody’s business;

Ø can become an annual community event.

For further info and support in organizing vigils please WhatsApp 646-461-0574 or email caribvoice@aol.com. If possible, also do contact TCV so we can map vigils and provide pre-vigil promotion and post vigil reporting. As well please send us vigil videos and photos so we can create collages online.