Family and sexual violence services in Papua New Guinea have received a boost with the opening of a new support centre planned for September of this year.
The PNG Family and Sexual Violence Case Management Centre will help children and women fleeing both domestic and sexual violence.
Peggy Giakoumelos reports.
In May of this year, Papua New Guinea prime minister Peter O'Neill apologised for the high levels of violence against women in his country.
And he promised to introduce tougher penalties for offenders.
The Prime Minister's apology came after a spate of horrific crimes, including the burning alive of a mother accused of witchcraft and the gang rape of two foreigners.
But support services for women surviving family and sexual violence have been lacking, too, up to now.
Dr Kamalini Lokuge, a researcher with the Australian National University, has worked as a doctor with international health organisations.
She says the case management centre in Lae will build significantly on existing services in the city.
"You can imagine a lot of the women who come, the majority, they've been survivors of intimate partner violence. So they're being bashed and assaulted by their partners. A lot of the children who come, they've been assaulted, raped by people within the family. So, just providing medical and counselling care isn't all that those sorts of survivors need. They need access to protection, the legal sector to the police sector, and the links with those sectors and the level of service provision in those sectors is what's lacking. So this centre is about linking all those services and supporting the ones that aren't that strong until they're able to deliver high-quality care across all the needs of survivors."
Rebecca Bromhead is the deputy executive director at United Nations Women Australia.
She says many women in Papua New Guinea continue to find themselves in desperate circumstances with no place to turn.
"In Papua New Guinea, we know that half of married women have been forced into sex by their husbands. We know that women are six times more likely than men to suffer torture and killing as a response to sorcery and witchcraft allegations. And, also, that two in three women aged 15 to 24 provide sex in exchange for money, food and shelter. So, these are things that we're really concerned about. And initiatives such as this new Family and Sexual Violence and Case Management Centre in Lae are definitely welcome news."
The new centre will also be supported by PNG's Family and Sexual Violence Action Committee and the Australian National University.
Ume Wainetti is from the Action Committee.
In a recent talk for the ANU Development Policy Centre, she told those gathered there is currently no way to refer women and children who come forward for help.
Ms Wainetti says establishing a case-management centre was a huge step for PNG.
She tells the story of a woman and her three daughters who fled an abusive environment, only to return home because they had nowhere else to go.
"We didn't have resources to give support to the family, and we couldn't refer them to government, also, because government had nothing to offer. So the woman, in the end, the mother decided to drop the case against the father, and they went back to that abusive home. Because, we didn't have money to even send the girls to boarding school. So we have no facilities, and we don't have a mechanism, a facility, to which we can say, 'Refer that child there' or 'the woman there' and let that centre manage that case to find other assistance so that child-protection things could be properly accessed for the children."
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