Through the Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development Program (Pacific Women), the Australian Government has committed over three million dollars to help survivors of family and sexual violence in PNG's second largest city, Lae.
Research suggests that about two out of three women in PNG have experienced domestic violence, which affects their health, human rights, freedom of movement and ability to work. These women are vulnerable to many forms of abuse that are exacerbated by some cultural practices, including bride-price and male ownership of assets such as land.
Pacific Women is funding Femili PNG, a Papua New Guinean nongovernmental organisation (NGO), to run a new Family and Sexual Violence Case Management Centre (CMC) in Lae for three years, from 2014 until 2017. Oxfam PNG is the implementation partner, and the Australian National University provides support, including monitoring and evaluation and related research.
The Centre began accepting clients in July 2014; a year later, it had 183 open cases and 69 closed cases. It has supported hundreds of women and children in high-risk situations to receive help. This has included assisting women and children to access services, helping them through the court system, and supporting them to return to their home villages, away from violent perpetrators.
'CMC has had a lot of triumphs, and it is has been very satisfying and rewarding for me personally. Some of these include: having survivors access all the services they need; supporting survivors to end violence in their lives by relocating and reintegrating them to where they are safer; collaborating with the service providers in building a stronger network, and so on,' said Ms Denga, a caseworker with the CMC.
The Centre works collaboratively with other service providers in Lae that play a role in protecting survivors– the Family Support Centre, the two Lae safe houses, the police, the prosecutors' office, the orphanage, government social workers and other NGOs. By acting together, the CMC and these other services can achieve more to end violence against women and their families.
The Centre shared Louisa's1 story: Louisa's husband had been severely beating her since their marriage began. She decided that the violence needed to stop, so she sought help and was referred to the CMC. The case worker supported Louisa to report the abuse to the police. The client's husband was later arrested; he is now awaiting formal charges. The Centre provided Louisa with safe accommodation for two weeks while she gave her statement to police and received all of the medical treatment that she needed. She wanted to move back to her home village, so the CMC traced her family and established a network in her home province to provide ongoing support. After the Centre relocated Louisa with her two children, she was also provided with a business start-up kit so that she could be economically independent and able to support her children's needs.
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1 Louisa's name has been changed for safety and security reasons.