SETTLEMENT VOWS TO PROTECT WOMEN AND CHILDREN

17/05/2014

A multiracial community in Ba province has faced up to the challenge of protecting its women and children from violence and injustice.

The Koronubu settlement in Ba has successfully completed seven months of awareness programs which was facilitated by the Fiji Police, Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre and government ministries who are stakeholders of the Zero Tolerance Violence Free Community Campaign.

In an official event this week, the Minister for Social Welfare, Women and Poverty Alleviation Dr Jiko Luveni unveiled a billboard declaring this community violence free upon completion of 10 preparatory phases of this campaign.

Dr Luveni said the campaign has grown from strength to strength and the key to it is support from the male leaders.
“The campaign has been recognized internationally as well and it’s the approach taken that makes it unique, it’s actually getting the men to become champions of violence free communities and it also motivates communities to take ownership of the initiative," Dr Luveni said.

"The male leaders pair up with the women and youth leaders to form a gatekeepers committee and work closely with police and relevant stakeholders to create awareness and spread the message that violence be it of any form is a serious crime and should not be tolerated."

Dr Luveni added that economic empowerment was a key pillar of the campaign.

"Poverty is also one of the determinants of violence apart from awareness programs, the women are also assisted to start their income generating projects, trained on financial literacy and also encouraged to have personal savings account,” Dr Luveni said.

The Koronubu settlement is also confirmed to have a women’s centre that will open up various economic opportunities and create a platform for continued awareness on women’s empowerment. The centre will be funded by the Department of Women.

Koronubu women’s club president, Reena Prasad said the campaign had many positive impacts on the women in her community.

“This campaign has been eye opener for Koronubu women, we have learnt that there are laws like Domestic Violence Decree that protects us and we don’t need to live in fear," Mrs Prasad said.

"We are grateful to the minister Dr Luveni for showing us the way forward to break free from silence and to have confidence in ourselves, to exercise our right to live empowered and violence free lives. For the first time, we have realized that there is so much we can do as a group of women-her message has inspired us to work together and to plan and spend our time wisely to support our families,” she added.

Koronubu Sanatan Primary School president, Thakur Rajesh Singh, who is also a member of the gatekeepers committee said the campaign has reminded the men of their roles towards their families.

“One of the issues we had spoken about is the need for fathers to spend quality time with their family. And the need for parents to become good role models for their children. One of the strong messages received by the programs is that women are important partners into development, their rights to equally participate into income generating and decision must not be suppressed," Mr Singh said.

"A community that works to actively empower women will progress much faster than a community that fails to recognize women."

A presentation by the Koronubu police revealed that for the months of January to May 2014, a total of seven restraining orders were served.

The community awareness programs reiterates that Domestic Violence Decree was enforced to protect women and children of this country-once domestic violence cases are reported for example if a wife was assaulted by husband then the police officers are duty bound to charge the husband-they don’t have the authority to reconcile the matter at police station- in other words there is no drop policy towards domestic violence.

-ENDS-