BY LORETTA BRIGIDIA MANELE
INTERESTING findings from a research carried out in three provinces to see how attitudes and communication about violence against women and girls in the country has found that children in Temotu province are the first to intervene when violence erupts between a couple.
This is according to a presentation delivered by Dr Anouk Ride an independent consultant who carried out the research with Ms Melinda Kii and Women’s Desk officers of the Ministry of Women, Youth, Children and Family Affairs (MWYCFA) in Malaita, Temotu and Guadalcanal provinces.
She stressed that one of the reasons for the research was to examine social attitudes to uncover messages that would most likely change violence against women and girls.
Ride said the research involved 200 people who participated in a total of 15 workshops conducted from November 2017 to January 2018 that facilitated more than 30 hours of discussions.
Of the 13 research findings, Ride said one of them concentrated on who was likely to intervene and encourage change when violence occurred between a couple.
To add on, she expressed that in Malaita, the fathers of husbands are the primary actors, whereas in Guadalcanal it is both parents of the couple and in Temotu province children were found to be the first to act.
The research is an initiative of MWYCFA with SAFENET and other partners working on violence against women and is funded project by Oxfam Australia, from DFAT under the Safe Families Project.
