A plea for help

As Samoans battle physical and sexual abuse, the organisation that helps them has issued a plea for more help from the government.

Samoa Victim Support Group President, Muliagatele Lina Chang said the group, which has existed for a decade, has only received government funding in the past two years. Money had been provided to cover teachers’ salaries at the organisation’s School of Hope in 2014 and this year.

Besides that funding, the group has the lease for some land, to operate on. Muliagatele said more funding was crucial for ensuring the group could meet demand for its services.

“There’s more S.V.S.G. can do with funding, there’s a lot more we are able to do,” she said.

There were currently about four paid staff in the organisation, and a massive amount of volunteers, she said. A recent murder had prompted a spike in demand for help from the victim support group. Siliniu said many women had been turning up, fearing for the lives of themselves and their children due to abuse from their spouses.

“You see the suffering in those women’s eyes, and also the fear in those children’s faces.”

In the recently-released State of Human Rights Report 2015, the Ombudsman presented a case study into the Samoa Victim Support Group. The report found S.V.S.G. was extremely important to the country.

“S.V.S.G’s original mission was to assist vulnerable victims of sexual crimes, but out of necessity it now provides integrated, personalised and professional service to all vulnerable survivors of crime,” the report stated. “It has seen the pain, tears and heartache of many victims, but also the joy, confidence and belief in justice for those survivors of violence, which helps the organisation to continue to take a stand and make a difference in the lives of many.

“[Samoa Victim Support Group’s] anger management course received 115 referrals from court (all males) since its inception. The course has been so successful that it has had only one re-offender. If the Government is using SVSG’s programmes through its court system, it must also support the organisation via funds to do its work,” the report stated. Muliagatele welcomed the findings of the human rights report. Many people were using their own homes to house victims of abuse, and volunteers were keeping the crucial service going, she said.

Funding to run services besides the school would be a massive help, she said. “We will be able to bring in a whole lot of good people [with more money],” she said.

She praised volunteers, and those whose donations helped keep the doors open. S.V.S.G. had numerous branches operating in New Zealand and Australia now, and they helped with funding too, she said. Volunteer Patty Perez, of Sydney, Australia, said she had married into a Samoan family and wanted to do everything she could to help out the community.

The country had a culture of silence around abuse, and she wanted to help tackle that. “There is help and it’s never too late to ask for help.”