Shelter which will house women victims of violence handed over to government

Women victims of violence will now be able to go to a gender based violence shelter that has been handed over to the Fijian government today.

While receiving the shelter which is based in Lautoka from the Soroptimist International South West Pacific, Minister for Women, Mereseini Vuniwaqa says there is an increasing awareness that shelter is about more than ‘four walls and a roof’; it is also about providing security, safety and protection for victims displaced by domestic and gender based violence.

Vuniwaqa says therefore, shelters like this play a critical role in enhancing the safety and well-being of victims of gender based violence.

She adds while we have reason to celebrate this milestone with this handover ceremony, we must not forget that the violence hasn’t stopped yet, mindsets haven’t changed yet.

Vuniwaqa adds not all our sisters are safe and people will have to continue to work together – continue to break the silence on violence against women and girls, continue to lobby for change and continue to demand for action.

She adds that our fight to end violence against women and girls is a long journey but a fight truly worth fighting.

Vuniwaqa says a report by the Fiji Women's Crisis Centre called Somebody’s Life, Everybody's Business revealed that 72% of Fijian women experienced one or more types of violence in their lifetime from their husbands or intimate partners and were beaten during their pregnancies and raped by their husbands or partners, after a physical abuse.

She says in March last year, the National Domestic Violence Helpline received 87 calls when the first case of COVID-19 was reported and 527 genuine calls were received in April.

Vuniwaqa adds 66% of the callers were women, 34% were men and close to 50% of women were reporting a correlation between COVID-19 and an increase in violence, linked directly to the restrictions of movement and economic strains on families.

The Minister says the violence being reported was serious where close to three quarters of women reported physical violence, including some extremely serious forms of violence, such as being punched, kicked, hit by stones and timber.