Support for homeless mothers in city

By SAMUEL BARIASI
TEN homeless women in Boroko, Port Moresby, on Monday received beddings along with cooking and eating utensils from the Child and Family Services (CFS) to care for their children.
CFS director Simon Yanis said the mothers were identified during the lockdown period.
“We found out that all the streets in Port Moresby did not have children roaming around during the night except the 10 mothers in this part of the city,” he said.
He said the mothers told him that they had nowhere to go.
“We found them sleeping on cardboard boxes,” he said.
Yanis advised the mothers that CFS would assist repatriate them to their destinations of choice.
He said his officers would interview the women and get their details.
Yanis called on the National Capital District Commission’s welfare office to assist CFS in addressing issues with homeless children.
“CFS is a national office and we have other provinces as well to look after,” he said.
He said the Government had approved K2 million funding for CFS under the Covid-19 operations.
“Now we can see how we can respond to children’s issues during this time.
“We will use this funding to carry out our operations around the country during the state of emergency,” Yanis said.
He said a national strategy was already in place to use.
“Under this strategy, we will create a disaster preparedness response centre in our office in partnership with United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) in times of crisis such as the Covid-19.”