Referral pathway lacking: Official

Reports by Jina Amba, Lulu Mark and Patricia Keamo

THERE are so many cases of child abuse but our children are not getting all the help that they need because of the lack of a referral pathway and specialised child services, an official says.
Equal Playing Field (EPF) chief executive officer and co-founder Jacqui Joseph said according to the Lukautim Pikinini Act anyone who directly worked with children such as a teacher had the responsibility to report if a child was abused but these people were not aware of what they could do and were not reporting.
The National supports moves to end gender-based violence.
Joseph said EPF focused on delivering respectful education to children in schools and also assisted schools in creating a safe school environment by looking at standards that a school could maintain to ensure that it was a child-safe school. She said having a referral pathway was an important standard.
“Currently our country doesn’t have a referral pathway which means that when our children experience violence and abuse, there is no formal process for the teacher to know what to do,” she said.
“We have a lot of good laws that are there but one of the big problems that we have in our country is the lack of implementation.
“The laws are there and they are telling us what to do but there is no specialised service for our children.”
Joseph said this meant if there was a serious abuse case it would be referred to welfare and they would address it there but that would be as far as it got.
“The child really doesn’t get all the help that he or she needs.”
She said it was important for the child to get help as soon as possible because when children experienced abuse when they were very young it tended to affect them for a lifetime.
“They need to get counselling – they need specialised services.”
She said an immediate priority recommendation would be to start working on specialised services.
“What kind of country are we trying to create or what kind of leaders are we going to have in the future if these children are going to be abused and not going to get the help that they need?”
Joseph said despite having an estimated population of eight million plus, PNG did not have specialised services in place to protect its children.
“We can’t get there overnight but we can start now and build the momentum for tomorrow.”

Youths with disabilities more vulnerable

YOUTHS with disabilities are more vulnerable to abuse and thus an enabling environment should be created for them to air their concerns, an official says.
PNG Disability Association president Ben Theodore said this during the Youth Side Summit on Ending Gender-Based Violence (GBV) on Thursday. He said it was important to include the youths with disability in current discussions for a more inclusive future.
“It’s not easy to be a person with a disability in this country I can tell you all,” he said.
“Youths with disabilities could be very vulnerable.
“If you are a girl with a disability you are four times vulnerable to abuse.
“It is traumatising for the girls when they are abused.
“So youths today, remember to create that enabling environment for them.
“Allow them to be part of you, you be part of them.
“You can’t take advice from anybody else to help them.
“They will tell you what to do (themselves).”
Acknowledging the youths from the disability association that were at the summit, Theodore said youths with disabilities could be moderators, peace makers and talking to them was enlightening because they were smart and great observers with a lot of wisdom.
He stressed that when budgeting for youth forums like those with disabilities needed to be included in the discussion.
“Those that are working in the organisation that deal with youths, please be inclusive.
“Include them, let them speak their minds and allow their voices to be heard.”

Church, State to work together to end violence

THE Church and State have signed a joint statement to work together to end all forms of violence, Minister of Community Development, Youth and Religion Wake Goi, says.
Goi said this at the National Summit on Ending Gender Based Violence in PNG, which started on Sunday and ends today.
He said the Government is partnering churches to establish safe homes for women and children in need of protection.
Goi said the Government was partnering churches in providing counselling and rehabilitation services for survivors and to establish family protection and empowerment programmes.
He acknowledged churches for their input in the development of the country.
Goi said where the government had not reached the people, the churches had always been there.
Goi also acknowledged the efforts of non-governmental organisations who had assisted in implementing Government policies.
He said the Government had established the National Child and Family Services Database to better register, coordinate and track reports on issues affecting women, children and families.
“This is an integrated database to better inform us on victims, survivors, perpetrators, re-offenders and child cases by provinces and districts,” he said.
He said all child and family service officers throughout the country had been trained to collect data in their respective districts and provinces.
Goi said this information would be fed into the national database which would inform the leaders and the nation on issues affecting families including girls and women.

Work together, Sir John says

CHANGE should come from within, individuals should not wait for others to change but they should change if they want better communities and a society, says a church leader.
Cardinal Sir John Ribat told The National that the National Summit on Ending Gender-Based Violence in PNG was a way forward for the country.
Sir John said he wanted to see more women in Parliament, businesses, government and industry, and forums such as the summit would foster change. He said women needed to be given equal opportunity in the country.
“I think it’s time now the government and the church worked together and there must be a connection among all leaders, the government and everyone,” Sir John said.
“If we want to make it happen it must start within us. We must allow everyone to work together, the women, our mothers, and men together.”
He acknowledged the government and the partners especially Unicef for organising the summit which was the way forward in bringing together, the government and churches to talk about issues affecting women and children in the country.
Sir John said it was really encouraging to see prime minister and leaders making a bold stand to address gender-based violence and gender equality in the country.
“The men need to recognise women and work with them to support each other and bring the country forward,” he said.
During the summit the churches and the non-governmental organisations were commended for helping the government bring services to the people.

Men, boys should join campaign

ALL men and boys in the nation’s capital have been urged to join the National White Flag Campaign for all Men against Violence.
Minister for Community Development, Youth and Religion, Youth and Wake Goi said he and Prime Minister James Marape and other leaders would attend the event.
“I call on all men and boys to join our prime minister on Nov 16 at the Sir John Guise Stadium to begin the National White Flag Campaign for all men against violence,” he said.
Goi said this campaign is a homegrown initiative of the government and its national pulse of this nation to advocate against violence.
The National supports moves to end gender-based violence.
“Let us be the agent of change. Let us be role models for our sons and the future generations,” he said.
He said during two men’s forums held in 2017 and 2019, some of the root causes of violence where determined to the imbalance of power between women and men, a lack of communication, abuse of drugs and alcohol, poverty, cultural differences, religious differences, misunderstandings and others.
Goi said the department was looking forward to working with the National Research Institute (NRI) to further verify root causes.
He said most people in the country viewed violence against women as a family matter.
Goi said the government would take firm stand to address gender-based violence through men’s dialogue to address the root cause of it.
“The last 45 years we focused on women as victims and survivors. We now focus our attention on strengthening systems to support survivors whilst we focus attention on men to taking a lead role in addressing violence,” he said.

Electronic process will speed up police work

ABOUT 20 cases of family and sexual violence are reported at police stations in the nation’s capital every day but only one case can be processed by a police officer each day, says National Capital District Met-Supt Perou N’dranou.
With the new electronic system of e-policing, N’dranou said this would enable FSVU officers to process four cases per day.
To start off the installation of the basic system for e-policing, the city commission has presented a cheque for K260,000 to NCD police to cover the basic cost of the system.
“The programme was designed in 2018 but we didn’t have the funding to install it, but after two years, it’s something we can launch now,” Supt N’dranou said.
“Currently, the capacity that we have is one police officer can deal with one case in a day and we don’t get one case, we get 20 cases reported to the FSVU in a day.
“With this electronic system, it can help reduce the time in processing cases.”
Supt N’dranou said with the system, it would be a win-win for both the police and the city as they had been getting complaints and questions from city residents on the process of the cases.
“If we have this electronic system in every police station in the city, we will have the capacity to process the cases that are reported on a daily basis.
“That will now promote our efforts to reduce the cases that come to us, especially in cases of violence against women or children.”

Governor says examples are set at the top

CONSISTENT and continuous efforts are needed in the fight to end gender-based violence as cases escalates in the Papua New Guinea, Northern Governor Gary Juffa says.
Juffa, who is a member of the Parliamentary Coalition on GBV said there needed to be a push at the government level on this issue because people took their cues from the leadership level.
He said it would be difficult to harness the entire country if the leaders were not paying attention to the increase in cases of GBV and the need to eradicate it.
“The whole country takes its cue from what’s happening at the leadership level. If the leadership level is not moving or showing any interest then the country will reflect that despite the efforts of NGOs and development partners,” he said.
Juffa said while much of the focus was on the victims of gender-based violence, the perpetrators needed to be considered too in order to break the cycle and change things.
“We can’t isolate people who are also perpetrators, we spend a lot of time concerned about the victims and that’s true but we forgot that there are perpetrators who also need attention too,” he said.

Minister wants violence in families to end

MINISTER for Community Development, Youth and Religion Wake Goi has called Papua New Guineans rise up and address violence happening within families and communities.
Goi was speaking during the summit on ending gender based violence in PNG being held in Port Moresby.
The summit started on Sunday and ends today (Tuesday).
He admitted that the journey in addressing gender-based violence had been extremely challenging in PNG.
Goi said PNG had signed the UN Convention to Eliminate the Discrimination of all forms of violence against women.
He said since his term, the Government had introduced the following laws and policies:

• Lukautim Piknini Act;
• Family Protection Act;
• The National Women and Gender Equality Policy;
• The National Child Protection Policy; and,
• The National Prevention and Response to Gender Base Violence.

Goi said there were laws in place to protect women and children but it depended on the individual to really tackle the issue.
“While the law enforcement agencies in the government need to step up, our communities and society also need to rise up and take ownership and leadership in addressing violence happening within families and communities,” Goi said.

PM shifts responsibility to men to end gender-based violence

MEN in Papua New Guinea must rise up and pledge at a personal level to stop violence against women and girls, says Prime Minister James Marape.
Speaking during the opening of the first National Summit on Ending Gender Based Violence (GBV) from Sunday to today, Marape called on all men not to wait on the Government to enact laws on GBV, but to rise up and stop violence starting in homes and communities. He said women were an important part of society and needed to be respected, protected and treated equally.
“It is now time to stop just talking and do the work needed to end gender-based violence, especially against women and children,” he said.
Marape called on PNG men to use their physical strength, resources and talent in contributing to the betterment of the country and they could start by ending gender-based violence in their homes.
Referring to the creation story in the Bible, Marape said men were given the responsibility by God through Adam to take greater care of women and children.
“Women were not created as lesser beings but as an equal partner in life,” he said.
Joining the summit via video link, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said prior to Covid-19, the rates of violence in the Pacific were already among the highest in the world.
She said since the outbreak of Covid-19, reports had indicated that gender-based violence had increased globally.
“Collective and comprehensive action on ending violence against women and girls could not be more urgent and this is the kind of leadership the world needs right now,” she said.
European Union ambassador to PNG Jernej Videtic said GBV was not unique to PNG and was a global phenomenon and the EU would continue to support initiatives and share experiences to find solutions.
Videtic said the EU was supporting PNG through the spotlight initiative in partnership with the United Nations (UN) with a funding of K80 million.
“It’s not about the money but it’s about how to use the funds to achieve progress and we will be working complementary with the PNG measures,” he said.

Good behaviour, respect should be taught at early age: Juffa

GOOD behaviour and respect for others should be taught and imparted to children at an early age to minimise gender-based violence and other forms of violence, Northern Governor Garry Juffa says.
The Northern governor said this during the summit on ending gender-based violence in Papua New Guinea.
Juffa said education was the key but not enough attention was put in this area. He commended the Education Department for its effort in developing a curriculum for teaching children about rights, good conduct, respect and dignity.
Juffa said one example in his province was the early childhood learning centres. He said the students coming out from this centres would be future leaders as a lot of attention had been put in to ensure they were taught well.
“You can see that they are on top of their classes in all the schools, when they come out of this system,” he said.
“A child’s learning starts from the last trimester of their birth up until seven years. During that period, that’s a programmable period, that’s where you can get in and programme that child so that they can be positive, productive and respectful citizens,” Juffa said.
He said the other effort they need to undertake was teaching parents to be parents.
“In our cultural traditional settings, our parents where grandparents. They raised us and they already had the benefit of cultural education, we have lost our cultural education. We have now embraced the new world, the western world. A lot of cultural education that used to teach us these values, respect for one another, who are women, that’s been done away with,” he said.

Drugs, alcohol adding to violence

CONSUMPTION of drugs and alcohol were highlighted as one of the root causes of the increasing statistics of gender-based violence in the country.
Former member of parliament Dame Carol Kidu said the National Narcotics Bureau needed to conduct awareness on the use of alcohol as its sale and distribution could not be stopped due to the revenue it contributed to the economy.
Dame Carol said in the past only men consumed alcohol but due to changing trends and modes of behaviour both men and women were consuming alcohol which sometimes resulted in violence.
“Responsible use is critical. Here in the community irresponsible use of alcohol is seen all the time and it results in all sorts of violence,” she said.
“We never saw women drinking in the past and now we see women and young girls drunk as well as men and it causes a problem so we have to educate everyone on responsible use of alcohol.
“Gender based violence has never been part of the PNG culture, it has resulted in the rapid change, transition and influences from outside (western culture),” she said.
Minister for Housing and Urban Development and Moresby South MP Justin Tkatchenko said the consumption of alcohol and drugs was the fundamental problem that contributed to GBV and it needed to be addressed.
“Our culture is another factor, there’s still so much jealousy out there about a woman being in a higher position,” he said.
“The practice of solving GBV cases through customary way of paying money has to stop, it’s not solving the problem it’s making it worse.”
Tkatchenko said it was also important to empower the police force and having a proper police response for GBV cases.
“There are laws in place, but we need resources and capacity for the police to enforce these laws.”
Meanwhile East Sepik Governor Allan Bird said people always seemed to think that the solution lay in amending a law or writing a new one but it was more basic.
“We talk about equality and how it’s enshrined in the Constitution but the question is how do we operationalise it?”
The root causes of GBV that were highlighted including the recommendations made by the participants will be presented to the parliamentary coalition who will present an outcome statement in this week’s Parliament sitting.