Communication key to helping survivors

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Reports by HELEN TARAWA, Jina Amba, Lulu Mark and Patricia Keamo

STRONGER collaboration among service providers in the country is needed for effective case management of survivors of gender-based violence (GBV), an official says.
Case management is a process that assesses, plans, implements, coordinates, monitors and evaluates the options and services required to help the survivor of GBV recover and heal.
The National is a supporter in the campaign to end GBV.
Femili PNG (FPNG) chief executive officer Daisy Plana says the first thing a case worker does is stabalises the GBV survivor followed by a briefing on the rights, options and the consequences of actions.
“The needs of the survivors are multiple (and) when it comes to our care, not all of the care is available,” she said.
“You need to raise it to specific service providers.”
“Therefore”, she said, “it was important that there was strong coordination and collaboration among service providers and referral pathways.
“It is very hard when working in isolation because not a lot have the resources. As the level of GBV is getting to another degree, we need to educate our service providers in new approaches.
“Access to professional development is critical and it should be done simultaneously by all service providers so that we are speaking the same language.”
Plana said when more women and children were empowered about their rights, they were accessing services – thus awareness-raising in the community should be fostered.
“Education is the only way to break the cycle of violence.
“The more we reach into the community, the community is taking ownership” and so more communities in the remote rural areas should have access to these knowledge as well.”
Plana said their work had proved to help survivors and the Government should embed the approach to the established system.
She added that non-governmental organisations and civil societies were working without resources, hence the Government should support them through funding.


Volunteers lack money, resources
President of the Human Rights Defenders Association (HRDA) of Papua New Guinea Linda Tule.

THE first responders to gender-based violence (GBV) situations are the human rights defenders (HRD) who do what they do purely out of passion to end GBV in their communities, an official says.
Human Rights Defenders Association (HRDA) of Papua New Guinea president Linda Tule said human rights defenders were found right across the country and in Port Moresby there were 20, all men, active members in her team.
She said 250 HDR were trained in the city in 2017 and they were working individually in their communities until in 2018 when an association was formed and was launched last year.
She said it was important to work as a team because they were all HRD with a common goal.
“Our vision is for everyone in PNG to have their rights to live life in all its fullness,” she said.
“We identify ourselves as HRD in our communities and we are volunteers operating out of our own pockets.
“Because we are based in the community and people know who we are, we either get to them or they come to us.
“We intervene and help the victims and survivors of GBV through showing them the referral pathways.
“We direct or get them to the safe houses, family and sexual violence unit (FSVU) and do awareness on GBV and inform them about their rights. We are on the ground working and we are the first responders in many cases.”
Tule said one of the main challenges was financial constraints of the individual HRD because the association did not receive any funding.
She said the human rights defenders played a crucial role in addressing GBV from the bottom up and a little bit of financial support would go a long way in amplifying their efforts.
She said HDIs were part of the system already established in the community that needs to be strengthened.


Support services need to be part of govt structure

SUPPORT services like the family and sexual violence units and family support centres are not part of the formal government structure but attachments that provide services to victims of violence.
Julianne Sapaka, a representative of the Justice and Legal Services Department in the Autonomous Region of Bougainvile said if these services were to be legalised as part of the formal structure, they would help tackle violence in the country.
Similar to other provinces, the FSVU in AROB has been funded by donors and when they leave, it would be another challenge to solve gender-based violence, Sapaka said.
“The FSVU is a core function under the Department of Community Development, but they struggle with financial support to make it operational in coordinating referral pathways in the region and everywhere else,” she said.
“The Department of Community Development is not taking a proactive approach to manage this issue on the ground.”
Sapaka said when the referral pathways coordinated by the FSVU did not work, it affected their work in providing secretarial services to the unit.
Some of the challenges she highlighted were funding, coordination, geographical settings, communication and transport.
“When you don’t have all the agencies in the rural areas coming into Bougainville, it is costly. For example, when a victim needs to be examined by a doctor,” Sapaka said.
Because these support services are not part of the formal structure, they do not get the same benefits and resources as the departments or agencies.
Most of these service providers volunteer to provide services to the victims of violence by using their own resources and capacity.
“Levels of crime and its causes change in time so our staff need to have ongoing capacity-building training to be able to manage this issue,” Sapaka said.


Abel to lead committee on GBV

From left: Alotau MP Charles Abel, Moresby North East MP John Kaupa, Northern Governor Gary Juffa, West New Britain Governor Francis Maneke, East Sepik Governor Allan Bird, Rachael Marape, Solomon Islands High Commissioner Barnabas Anga and NCD Governor Powes Parkop at the closing of the National Summit on Ending Gender-Based Violence in Port Moresby yesterday. – Nationalpic by KENNEDY BANI

PARLIAMENT yesterday announced a permanent parliamentary committee on gender-based-violence (GBV) to be headed by Alotau MP Charles Abel.
Leader of Government Business Rainbo Paita made the announcement when Parliament resumed its session at 3pm.
Paita told Parliament that the parliamentary committee consisted of Abel as chairman, East Sepik Governor Allan Bird as deputy chairman and committee members – Chimbu Governor Michael Dua, NCD Governor Powes Parkop, Goroka MP Aiye Tambua, Morobe Governor Ginson Saonu and Rabaul MP Dr Allan Marat.
He said the committee’s responsibilities would include:

  • Identifying forms of GBV, specifically violence against women and girls but not limited to cohesive and control of the technology facility abuse;
  • Identifying and immediate and long-term measures to prevent GBV with focus on future generations;
  • Inquiring the impact level of coordination accountability for services and policy, responses across government departments, provinces local level governments, non-governmental and community-based organisations, private sector;
  • Inquiring into the adequacy of the eminence and prevalence of the data GBV and how to overcome limitations in the collection of nationally consistent and timely data, including but not limited, to courts, police and hospitals;
  • Identifying perpetrators intervention programmes of the support services to help them change their behaviour; and,
  • Considering the views and experiences of frontier services, advocacy groups and others working to address GBV.

Paita said the quorum of the meeting for the committee is four.


The Salvation Army women leaders that support the work at the House of Hope safe house for women affected by gender-based violence.
– Nationalpic by LULU MARK
Safe houses an effective solution

SUPPORTING the establishment of safe houses throughout the country can be an effective way to address gender-based violence (GBV), the Salvation Army says.
The Salvation Army House of Hope manager said the safe-house had not seen a woman returning because of GBV after she left over the last eight years.
The National supports the campaign to end GBV.
The House of Hope manager said the house had the capacity to accommodate four women at any one time but it could go up to six and depending on the nature of their case, some women would stay up to five or six months. Thirty women passed through it yearly.
“The women that came by our safe house only return to complete training that they started, update us on their progress or to follow up on other queries, the manager said.
“I have not seen a women coming back because of GBV and that goes on to show that what we are doing is actually working and changing lives.”
She said the house was not only a shelter but a place where women found healing and were empowered through programmes such as:

  • COUNSELLING;
  • DAILY devotion and Bible study;
  • HOUSE meri training;
  • PERSONAL viability school; and,
  • ONE hour GBV awareness every Wednesday morning because many women did not understand what GBV was and the referral pathway;

The manager said a major challenge was that some women because of what they had gone through would decide not to return to their husband and they applied for interim protection order (IPO) or permanent protection order (PPO) and in that case they would have rented a place which required money.
“They also have the fear of whether they would be accepted or will they ever have a normal life.
“So while in the safe house, women are encouraged through the training and practical projects to raise money and start something that they can continue when they leave.
“GBV is not decreasing.
“Because of awareness you may not see men beating their wives on the streets but they are taking it back to their homes.
“It is increasing and we need more safe-houses to address it.
The manager added that it was acknowledged that involving the perpetrators was important as well and so far three men were seen.
“Every woman who makes her way to a safe house is always welcome.”


Left: Participants of the National Summit on Ending Gender-Based Violence listening to presentations made at the last day of the summit in Port Moresby yesterday.

MPs work out strategies to address gender-based violence

COALITION MPs hoping to put an end to gender-based violence (GBV) have come up with strategies to address the issue.
This was announced during the end of a national summit on ending GBV which started on Sunday and ended yesterday.
The strategies will be presented to parliament by the coalition team. The coalition agreed to meet annually to host a national summit to address GBV where they will hear and discuss the status of women and girls in the nation and agree to an annual set of goals and action plans at provincial, regional and national level
The team plans to develop a monitoring body or secretariat that will track and provide an annual report on status of the national and provincial strategies and more broadly on the status of gender equality, GBV and women and girls in general in the nation.
The coalition agreed to develop, resources and actionise provincial and district strategies and tactical plans to promote gender equality, end to GBV, share these with others and report their status annually.
The team also agreed to support the adoption of the national and provincial GBV Council structure in line with the national structure used to address HIV/AIDS in PNG.
They will support police and demand and ensure they are properly resourced, trained and equipped to address GBV and held accountable for their actions.