Church opens safe house

By OLIVE SUKUN
THE Department of Community and Youth Development contributed K10,000 to a Safe Meri House built through a K40,000 grant at the Silver Memorial church in June Valley, Port Moresby.
“I would like to commend the church for this community-based initiative,” Community and Youth Development secretary Anna Solomon said during the opening of the facilities on Sunday.
The Safe Meri House came about as result of increasing violence against women and children and the church decided to build a refuge home to assist victims of family and sexual violence (FSV).
The church approached Adventist Development Relief Agency-Australia that gave K40,000 for the safe house.
Solomon said the house was the first for the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) church in PNG and the department contributed to help support programmes for it.
“Domestic violence is becoming a norm in the country and within families,” she said.
“Violence is not only with husband and wife but also brothers and sisters or even fathers and their sons.”
Solomon said talk on gender-based violence (GBV) was becoming too confrontational for village people as many people viewed respect differently – according to their culture.
The facility will be a temporary accommodation for victims of FSV before being transferred to a more established facility.
Australian aid representative Edward Wilkinson said GBV and FSV were challenges and much is needed to address the issues.
“I commend the church and its members for taking the step to address these problems with the safe house,” he said.
Prof Brad Watson, from Avondale College in Australia, and his students under their development studies programme committed K5,000 for the new facility.