Tonga gets women's crisis center for abuse victims

Updated November 17, 2009 09:41:53

Tonga's first women's crisis centre has opened, giving women and children fleeing domestic violence a secure refuge. The centre's co-ordinator, Ofa Guttenbeil-Likiliki, says it is modelled on the womens crisis centre in Suva, Fiji, and will operate in much the same way.

Many of the staff used to be with the Tonga National Centre for Women and Children, but they walked out over long running grievances and concerns about the organisation's independence from the government. Ms Guttenbeil-Likiliki says the level of domestic abuse in Tonga is such that women need a safe place to go with their children.

Presenter: Bruce Hill
Speaker: Ofa Guttenbeil-Likiliki, co-ordinator of the Tonga Womens Crisis centre

GUTTENBEIL-LIKILIKI: The need for a crisis centre is coming more and more apparent, especially in the last two years where we've seen the number of reported cases increase dramatically, particularly in the area of domestic violence and sexual offences against women, for example rape. So yes we have seen an increase in these statistics in the data around this area, and so I think this is just the right timing for establishing another service to cater for the needs of women and children survivors who are victims and survivors of all forms of violence here in Tonga.

HILL: So what will the crisis centre actually do? Provide a temporary shelter for women and children escaping domestic violence?

GUTTENBEIL-LIKILIKI: That's correct. We will be providing a temporary shelter for both women and children. Our structure and policies and procedures is somewhat similar to that of the Fiji Women's Crisis Centre.

HILL: Now I know that the Fiji Women's Crisis Centre in Suva has a lot of strong bars on the windows, security entry and also quite a few security guards, because sometimes men who've been involved in this kind of thing turn up looking for their women, they can get quite violent can't they?

GUTTENBEIL-LIKILIKI: Absolutely and we've witnessed that here in Tonga as well, where unhappy husbands and male partners have come both the centre and the past centre where we used to work looking for their wives in quite a distressed state. So as a result of one of the reviews that was done in the centre that we previously worked at, a recommendation was made for 24 hour security, seven days a week, both at the shelter and we're looking at security here at the head offices as well. The situation with the shelter is that it's quite difficult in Tonga to keep it anonymous and to keep it hidden from the public because the communities here are quite small, you only have to ask three or four questions before you are pinpointed to where the shelter is located. So what we have to do in that sense is that to ensure that there is full-time security available to take care of the women and children clients who do seek our shelter.

HILL: The volunteers that are running this crisis centre, most of them actually came from the Tonga National Centre for Women and Children; they actually walked out of their jobs in October. That must have been quite a wrench for them, was there some concern that the Tonga National Centre for Women and Children was just a bit too close to the government, that it wasn't really a non-government organisation at all, it was more of a government thing?

GUTTENBEIL-LIKILIKI: Yes and there was a clear need for us to make this move and to start a new NGO that was independent, that is independent sorry, and that we do have our own autonomy. I mean we believe in collaborating with government, but at the same time we don't believe that we should be co-opted by government.

HILL: While a women's crisis centre might be relatively non-controversial in places like Australia or New Zealand, Tongan society is still fairly conservative and some men have some ideas about the role of women in a relationship which might not necessarily jive with your philosophy. Is there any concern that there are parts of Tongan society that might look sideways a little bit and say well you're actually doing something to break up families here?

GUTTENBEIL-LIKILIKI: Yes well that would, I mean, your question in your statement would be true in its entirety about if say we were talking to each other ten years ago, but I think the communities here in Tonga are slowing opening up. For example I remember the Tongan National Centre for Women and Children initially wanted to register as the crisis centre but there was a bit of conflicting views about the word crisis, and using that to I guess in a way it was admitting that there was any crisis happening in Tonga. So I mean ten years on and here we are established and registered as the crisis centre I think we're making headway in Tonga.