Committee needs clear direction

THE biggest challenge faced by the East New Britain Family and Sexual Violence Action Committee (FSVAC) is coordination, deputy chairman and senior magistrate Samuel Lavutul says.
Lavutul was speaking at a stakeholders’ consultation workshop for strengthening referral pathways yesterday in Kokopo.
The one-day workshop was aimed at strengthening and harnessing the network between partners in ENB to ensure victims or survivors received the justice they needed in order to begin a new, violence-free life.
Lavutul said the processes and partners should be clearly identified so that victims could access services available to them.
“As per counsellors, only three out of 35 who underwent training in 2015 are attached to the courts to provide counselling services to victims or survivors of gender-based violence,” he said.
Lavutul said there were positive results coming out from the counselling facility at the court house, which was the big part of the referral pathways.
He urged the ENB community development division to do follow ups and formulate a directory for counsellors.
Lavutul requested for additional counselling facilities at Kerevat and Rabaul.
He said there were plans to build a new court house in Pomio, hence, counselling services should also be included in the setup there.
Meanwhile, ENB acting adviser of the division of community development and child protection officer Philip Kuamin said it should be a concerted effort to reduce and eliminate issues leading to problems affecting women and children and generally the family unit.
Kuamin said while the counselling training had been held for ward members and church elders, various sector heads of government institutions also needed to show interest and engage in such discussions.