Following the launch of the Stop Violence Against Women and Children in Papua New Guinea report last year, ChildFund Australia has continued to support advocacy efforts on the issue of family and sexual violence in PNG, and secured funding to implement a range of programs to prevent violence and support survivors. On 2 December 2014, ChildFund hosted an event at Parliament House in Canberra to encourage further effort, collaboration and investment in initiatives to respond to this issue. ChildFund invited a number of people to speak, including Philma Kelegai from The Leniata Legacy. Her powerful speech moved and inspired us, and we wanted to share it with you in this blog post. Philma’s speech was preceded by a video, produced by human rights photographer and author of Crying Meri, Vlad Sokhin.
On 6 February 2013, Kepari Leniata was stripped naked, brutally tortured, mutilated and burnt alive in a public place, witnessed by an entire village. A wife and mother of two, her hands and feet tied to planks. She was carried unconscious by a mob to a pile of tyres, she was dowsed in kerosene, thrown onto the tyres and burnt alive.
She was only 20.
The chilling story of Leniata’s ordeal sent shockwaves around the world. I opened up the Post-Courier around that time and the front page screamed into my soul. I could not fathom that such a level of brutality was possible in this century, innocent lives destroyed. Little did I know this was not an isolated incident.
Immediately following Kepari’s brutal killing, it was reported that a nurse in Lae was gang-raped in her own home, then a five-year-old was gang-raped in Port Moresby. This was unacceptable. I decided then that it was no longer ok for me to just exist. Enough was enough. People, young and old, were compelled into action.
Together with other centres in PNG and around the world, we organised a Haus Krai. The Haus Krai is a traditional period of mourning for a life lost. We not only mourn that life, we also mourn for the potential and the possibilities that life represented. We were in mourning for the many lives that were lost from such circumstances, including Kepari’s.
We marched through the streets of Brisbane, through Port Moresby, through Washington DC, through Lae and many other centres all around the world as a united voice against this horror.
Cassaundra Rangip, Mona Endehipa and myself, as young women, realised the urgent need to seriously address gender-based violence in PNG. We formed The Leniata Legacy.
The Leniata Legacy is an international non-profit organisation that operates cross-jurisdictionally between Australia and Papua New Guinea, primarily for the emergent cause of gender-based violence in PNG. Conservative research has found that two in three women in Papua New Guinea are survivors of some form of violence whilst 59 per cent are survivors of rape.
The Leniata Legacy is unique in that it is formed, founded and managed by Papua New Guinean women, in both Papua New Guinea and Australia. The Leniata Legacy is the epitome of empowerment. To invest in the Leniata Legacy is to invest directly into Papua New Guinea. Our vision is the ERADICATION of gender inequality and gender-based violence in PNG.
We recognise the complexities of PNG’s socio-economic and law and order challenges, as well as our cultural setbacks, however, we believe this vision can be achieved.
Gender-based violence is a serious concern in many countries, but in Senegal the rates of violence are particularly high.
A recent study found that 74 percent of schoolgirls in Senegal have been sexually harassed, 22 percent have experienced an attempted rape, and eight percent have been raped. Other studies have shown that the people likely to perpetrate this violence are often known to the victim: a classmate, a boyfriend, a neighbour or a teacher.
Gender-based violence, or GBV, is a problem of substantial proportions. It has deep roots in socio-cultural norms due to rigid gender roles, expectations around masculinity and femininity, and power dynamics within the household.
ChildFund Senegal is working with local communities to help them respond to and prevent GBV. Our community-led approach has four steps:
Forming community groups | Self-diagnosing challenges in the community | Developing action plans, and Carrying out action plans.
This year, six child protection groups were set up with ChildFund`s support in two areas of Mbour district in western Senegal. The groups are composed of community members, who are themselves vulnerable to GBV and include both young people and adults.
Between January and June they met to discuss some of the most pervasive GBV issues in their communities. The groups chose to focus on community mobilisation and advocacy with authorities around rape, early and forced marriage and early pregnancy.
14-year-old Mawa’s story is an example of how these child protection groups are already helping girls and women in their communities.
“One day, around 8pm, while I was learning my lessons in my mother’s room, she called me to introduce me to two young men,” recalls Mawa*. “She told me with a very low voice that I should be very kind with one of the men because he had come to ask me for marriage.
“When I told her that I did not want to get married, I am a student and I want to stay at school she told me that if I did not love him and if I refuse this marriage, she will no longer support me.”
Mawa was left with no choice. To prepare her for marriage, Mawa’s mother withdrew her from school and sent her to the capital, Dakar, to work as a housemaid.
When the youth group in her village learned of Mawa’s situation, they brought the case to the newly formed child protection group. The group then met with Mawa’s mother to negotiate for her return in light of the pre-dowry gift her mother had received.
Mawa had no idea that all of this was going on. “One Sunday, my mother called and asked me to come back to my town to resume my studies,” she says. “It is then that I learned that it was thanks to my village child protection committee that I was able to return home.
Unfortunately Mawa’s story is not uncommon in Senegal. That is why ChildFund will continue to support child protection groups like the one in her community.
*Name changed to protect her identity
