80 per cent of sexual assault survivors in the West were children : Ashna Shaleen
Of the 1600 sexual assault survivors in the west, 80 percent were children and 20 percent wee adults.
All 1600 survivors have accessed services provided by Medical Services Pacifc in Lautoka
Country director Ashna Shaleen said this was the total figure since the Lautoka branch inception in 2020. This was under the European Union’s Strengthening Collaboration, Accountability, and Empowering Stakeholders (SCALES) programme.
“So, we served 600 clients who accessed our clinics for medical forensics and other assistance This is gender-based violence clients, sexual assault clients and this is a big number for the Western Division,” she said.
“We didn’t do it alone, we did it in partnership with a lot of collaboration with the Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation, with the Fiji Police Force and with respectful agencies who are who are here.”
“The 1600 sexual assault cases recorded as of November here with Medical Services Pacific; this is the entire data that we have since inception. We started our work in 2013, and out of 1600 that we have 600 is from the Western Division,” she added.
This was highlighted during the western interagency response to gender-based violence two-day workshop which began at the Tanoa Waterfront Hotel in Lautoka yesterday
“Because of the European funding we were able to establish not only a post-rape, sexual assault clinic, but also the entirety of the work that we do as an organisation,” she said. “So, the work the organisation does is in many folds, there’s the sexual gender-based violence component, the child protection component, the health component, and it wouldn’t have been possible if it wasn’t for the endorsement of the many agencies.”
“This workshop was designed in such a way that it would commemorate the 16 Days of Activism.”she concluded.