The Fiji Women Crisis Center has been receiving a lot of requests from rural and maritime areas in the country to raise awareness about domestic violence at the community level.

Coordinator Shamima Ali highlights that the whole idea is to change mindsets in these communities, which does not focus only on women but also raises awareness among men.

Ali adds that based on violent experiences shared by women, the FWCC is now working out strategies to take their services to rural and maritime communities.

“So the men, are also included after the women. 6 months later, we go back to a community and work with a man as a male advocate, as a male advocate for human rights, so this man undergoes the sensitization on gender, understanding domestic violence’s rape, and so on, as a woman did, but they also change their own behaviour. The whole idea is for them to change their own behaviour, thinking, and attitude and influence other men to change theirs.”

Ali adds this endeavour cannot be achieved within a week, but there is a need for everyone to be involved, including community leaders, church leaders, and authorities, in changing their mindset about domestic violence.

She says 53 women have died of domestic violence in the last 10 years, with the most recent case in Narewa, Nadi.