REPORT ON SEXUAL VIOLENCE TO GIRLS

The National 12 April 2012

We read today of a report from the organization Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) that from 2008 to the present time a significant proportion of patients who received treatment as the result of violence were children some under the age of 5 years. Slippery reporting.

AIDS Holistics has repeatedly criticized the media reports on violence to women and children. Who is preparing the media reports? Is it the journalists or the organization MSF? Please click:

FALSE REPORTS ON VIOLENCE

Take the report from The National above. The newspaper headline refers to sexual violence. Then the report goes straight into patients receiving treatment for violence. This implies sexual violence but no. And some were children under the age of 5 years.

In the rural settlement of Tari, 31% who reported violence were between  5 and 12. So they were not being treated. They just reported violence. Were they interviewed? Please click:

ANTI-FAMILY COUNSELLING

Does your daddy smack you? Yes sometimes. That is violence. Put her down as a survivor of violence. She is number 403 this month. Next.

My daughters are survivors of violence. A girl punched my younger daughter yesterday.

The article reports of how parents are afraid to send their daughters to school for fear of rape. AIDS Holistics regularly comments on this.  There is now a problem of young girls staying in villages to complete grades 6, 7 and 8. There are no dormitories and security at the top-up schools.

The report goes on to say that in PNG, boys are 10% more likely to start first year of primary schools than girls. In many villages, there are no schools and children have to walk 10 kilometers to school.

I would certainly not allow my daughters to walk that distance. I worry about them walking down a main road from 5 Mile to St Peter’s School. That is a distance of about a kilometer. This problem faces all parents in the world.

The report goes on that enrolment rates in 2009 were 82% for boys and only 74% for girls. Given all the problems of families, that is very good. The figures from the Measurement Support Unit of the Department of Education confirm this.

In some Asian countries, baby girls were killed as they were seen as a drain on family finances. Compare the PNG situation with attendance of boys and girls in other developing countries.

Ms Ume Wainetti is undoubtedly doing a good job of publicizing the issue. But she ignores the immense value of the Personal Development courses from grades 6 to 12 in primary and high schools. Please click: 

FAMILY TEACHING IN PRIMARY SCHOOL

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

These studies frame all issues facing young boys and girls and must have a profound impact.