In the quest to create peaceful societies through eliminating all forms of violence, village leaders and elders in rural communities are signing up for the Zero Tolerance Violence Free Community Campaign (ZTVFC).
On Wednesday this week, Naitauvoli village in Naitasiri province pledged its support for the Zero Tolerance Violence Free Community Campaign.
Minister for Social Welfare, Women and Poverty Alleviation Dr Jiko Luveni this week officially launched Naitauvoli village in Naitasiri province a Zero Tolerance Violence Free Community.
Dr Luveni congratulated the Naitauvoli village leaders and reiterated that the campaign will be instrumental in changing the mindset of people and motivate them to live in peace and harmony with each other.
“It will take one year behavior change preparation to declare absolute zero tolerance and strength of this campaign is the strong support from the male leaders. Confident women, free of abuse are resourceful and progressive, they will seek economic empowerment for sustainable development,” Dr Luveni said.
The campaign is strongly backed up by the Naitauvoli village headman, Jonacani Tamanivalu along with the women and youth leaders.
Mr Tamanivalu said his people support this campaign and are determined to work together in becoming a violence free community in Fiji.
“We have 300 people in this village and there are families we believe who may be facing issues of dispute and violence, yet is it not reported. This is the campaign through which we hope to break the silence of those hidden cases,” Mr Tamanivalu said.
“Everyone in the village is now aware that violence is not an acceptable behaviour. “No violence” is our new village law and we are very serious about implementing all the measures to reinforce this law.”
Mrs Vatea Naibena, president of the Soqosoqo Vakamarama Naitauvoli revealed there are cases of domestic violence in Naitauvoli that are not been reported.
“This because the issue of violence has always been treated as a private matter until now, we have realized that we don’t have to suffer in silence, we have got our village leader who is heading the gate keeping committee and he is there to listen to our views. We hope that through awareness we will learn more about the new laws that protect women,” Mrs Naibena said.
Starting next month, the Ministry of Women will conduct awareness training programs in Naitauvoli village.
The trainings will focus on Gender Based Violence, Domestic Violence Decree, Child Welfare Decree, leadership skills and anger management skills.
The ministry will work with its stakeholders, namely Police, Ministry of Health, Department of Social Welfare, Provincial Development and Ministry of Agriculture to prepare the village to be declared as violence free.
Currently, there are over 34 communities that have pledged their support for this campaign with many more communities waiting to join in.
-ENDS-