We All Need To Speak Out Against Violence: Bhatnagar
The following is the Assistant Minister for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Veena Bhatnagar’s speech during the Declaration of the Zero Tolerance Free Community in Tovu and Ketei villages in Totoya, Lau on August 17, 2017.
Totoya’s main source of income for the women is from weaving and from making artifacts
The Ministry for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation has funded three (3) Income Generating Projects:
- Poultry project in Tovu (this has failed)
- Fuel and now canteen project here in Dravuwalu
- Poultry project in Vanuavatu (this has also failed)
- The Ministry has therefore confirmed that poultry projects are not viable in the province of Lau
During the National Women’s Expo in June this year, the province of Lau earned more than $59,000.00 and was recognised as the province with the most sales
Out of the four women who participated in the National Women’s Expo in June, three women of Totoya were licenced under the Buy Fiji Made brand, one was from Dravuwalu, one from Ketei and the other from Tovu.
In 2013, Totoya was the first island in Lau to agree to have Zero Tolerance Violence Free Communities and will be the first island in Lau to be declared violence free.
For gender based violence, some of the issues that raised with our officers have identified during their field visits are:
- The high number of unreported cases
- In March this year there were only two reported cases from Dravuwalu
- Unstable families have also resulted in having unsupervised children and high school drop-outs
- The high number of single mothers
I urge the village that with the declaration, villagers need to speak out on violence; children need to be taught to report violence and that any violent or sexual act against them is not right; women need to support other women who live in violent situations; and how avoiding all this will develop a cycle of violence where children will think that being violent is acceptable
We also need to promote the Child Care Helpline number 1325 and the Domestic Violence Helpline number 1560.
Source: Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation
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