Representatives from various stakeholders around the country will be formulating their strategies to address violence against women in their communities today. This will come at the end of a two-day national meeting on violence against women organized by the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre. Following presentations and discussions from key stakeholders yesterday, participants will formulate their own strategies and make suggestions for what can take place at national level.

The meeting which began yesterday included presentations on the situation of violence against women in Fiji by the FWCC, police responses and health sector responses to the issue as well as presentations from service providers such as the Department of Social Welfare and the programs of the Ministry for Women. A report on shelters and emergency accommodation for victims was also shared with the participants.

‘What we wanted to do was to firstly make people aware about what was currently available and the limitations and challenges currently being faced. It was also an opportunity for participants from around the country to ask questions of these various service providers’, said Shamima Ali, Coordinator of FWCC. “What is very clear is that services are often centralized so there are sections of the community that are missed out and then of course there are other limitations such as the attitudes that exist in terms of service delivery”, said Ali.

Today the focus will be on finding practical strategies for the various communities given the current resource constraints that are being faced by various service providers. “Participants have chosen to strategise at district level as this would be most practical for them and we will try
and see how we can coordinate this work at national level”, said Ali.

The meeting which is a part of theFWCC 16 Days of Activism campaign continues today at JJs on the Park and presentations of strategies will begin at 2pm.