Violence victims scarred

Victims of Sorcery accusation-related violence (Sarv) are scarred and marked for life, the president of Divine Word University has said.
President professor Fr Philip Gibbs said apart from the physical scars, the victims carry a social stigma for life.
The survivors experience insecurity, often lack medicines to treat their wounds and carry the stigma of a sorcerer all their lives, he said.
“If anything happens in the community they point figures at them,” he said.
Gibbs said Pacific women whom are victims of Sarv carry that reputation for the rest of their lives.
Such a reputation prevents them moving about freely within the community.
“They become beggars,” he said.
“They beg for their children’s school fees, they beg for medical supplies and beg for money to go to the court only to attend their court cases.”
Gibbs said he has lived in Papua New Guinea for 50 years and has experienced Sarv issues in the last 25 years.
He said this is an ongoing situation that needs better interventions for an immediate emergency fund to be set up for Sarv victims to access.