Church tackles violence against women, girls

The church has thrown its weight behind the push to eliminate violence against women and girls.

Yesterday marked the first day of a two day meeting between community members, church leaders and nongovernmental organisations to discuss how to address violence against women in Samoa.

The project is aiming to come up with a conclusive visual aid on the 16 ways to preach an end to violence against women and girls.

The 16 visual aids will be taken from Biblical passages, which will be selected by the participants of the event.

The project has been put together by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (U.N.E.S.C.O) and the Samoa National Council of Churches, with the assistance of UN Women.

Yusuke Nii from UNESCO says it is time for Samoa to stand up to the issue, and was thankful for the National Council of Churches involvement.

“Gender equality is our number one priority all over the world. We have now partnered up with UN Women to fight against violence towards women and girls in Samoa because it is not really openly talked about, but it is quite a serious issue.”

This is my first time to see this kind of workshop in Samoa because U.N.E.S.C.O hasn’t really worked sustainably with a faith based agency in the past.”

Suisala Mele Manualaivao of UN Women was happy with the attendance, as it allowed individuals to speak their mind.

“We are grateful for the participation we have had,” she said. “These types of discussions are actually best when it’s a smaller group because then people can be more honest with their opinions and their thoughts.”

Suisala noted that attempts had been made in the past to confront the issue of violence against women but nothing had been specialised with Samoa in mind.

“Earlier this year, U.N.E.S.C.O wanted to create a document with the National Council of Churches to address gender-based violence.”

“The document they had really didn’t meet the needs of Samoa, so instead we decided to create our own based on the 16 ways to end violence against women.”

The complete visual aid will be translated into Samoan and printed as a reference for members of the community and religious leaders, allowing them to have a guide in promoting healthy family relationships and gender equality.

Domestic violence activist, Tuiloma Sina Retzlaff, was appreciative that the National Council of Churches has recognised the issue as a serious one, and believe they can make a real difference. “The national Council of Churches stepping out is something that should be commended, but it is also a first,” she said.

“The role of the church in the fabric of Samoa is really important, their reach and their influence is huge.”

“They are digging into the core of Samoans by going into the Bible to pull out what Jesus himself said about being non-violent. So instead of talking about violence they are talking about love, instead of talking about victims they are talking about survivors.”

Tuiloma said that events like these needed to happen, as the only way a matter such as this one can be resolved is through discussion.

“I believe that it is not an issue that can be solved overnight in our cultural context in Samoa.”

“But it is a social issue that does require people getting together to talk about it. The more discussions we have, the more we air the issues... the closer we can come to solutions.”

Mr. Nii agrees, and would love for more Samoans to be transparent when it comes to the topic.

“It’s still a long way off (end to violence), but with this work it can be a breakthrough to open up everyone’s mouth (on the issue).”

The statistics are quite high when it comes to women who have experienced violence, but Suisala pointed out that measures have been put in place to try and reverse this trend.

“The Family Safety Health Study has told us that 62% of women experience some sort of violence in their lifetime and 48% of that is domestic or intimate partner violence.”

“We have legislation that changed in 2013, The Family Safety Act, which addresses domestic violence in a much more serious way in terms of the stringency of the laws. We also have the family violence court, which is the first dedicated court to address domestic violence in Samoa.”

Tuiloma was adamant that the new policies were working, as more victims were brave enough to step forward and report violence to the police.

But she hopes that one day this number drops significantly as future generations are educated further on the issue.

“When you look at the statistics at the police domestic violence unit, we use to be lingering around three to four hundred cases. But since some of these key initiatives that number has elevated up to 2,800.”

“I would like that in 20 years time, with the entire generation coming through schools now to be taught how to build healthy relationships, where young girls and boys are brought up as equals.”

The 16 ways to preach an end to violence against women will be finalised and published before November 25th, the International Day of Elimination of Violence against Women. It coincides with the 16 days of activism against gender violence, which ends on Human Rights Day, December 10.

Another meeting will be held today at 1pm in the conference room at the Samoa National Council of Churches at Mulinu’u, for those interested in attending.