NEW FSVU OFFICE OPENS IN NCD

The Seven Mile Police Station at Jacksons International Airport in Port Moresby city opened its newly built Family & Sexual Violence Unit (FSVU) office today.

The office space was built with help from the Port Moresby Rotary Club (PMRC). Speaking on behalf of the club, Adam Hughes, a volunteer who serves as the club’s Director of Community Services said the support is part of PMRC’s Say-No-2-Family-Violence campaign which started in 2018.

“The Say- NO- 2- family- violence campaign is aimed at helping to reduce incidents of family violence and developing Port Moresby as a thriving, safe and healthy place to live and work,” said Mr. Hughes.

He said at the local level and in the short term, this means equipping the community with skills to understand and meet the challenges of violence and encourage victims and perpetrators to seek help. The longer-term goal is to change attitudes and behaviors toward offending, condoning, tolerating, and ignoring family violence.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) for Central & NCD Benjamin Turi said since the formation of the FSVU in the Constabulary, they have attended to numerous cases and also face many challenges in their operations, such as manpower.

ACP Turi said since the inception of the unit, only women officers were part of the unit, but he has now seen an increase in the number of male officers joining that division and he commended them.

“These men are real officers; they sit down with our ladies (victims),” said ACP Turi.

He said instead of going around and attending to other issues, these men choose to sit and listen to victims of Gender and Sexual Violence victims, and he commended them for doing that.

With the structure of the FSV Unit still undergoing process of approval and establishment at the government level, the existing units throughout the country are still working hard to provide much needed help to victims of family and sexual violence with the limited resources available to them. Therefore, the support from donors and partners such as PMRC goes a long way in helping victims of family and sexual violence.

The FSVU office at the Seven Mile Police Station is the fifth office PMRC has helped to set up, representing an investment worth approximately K750,000.00.