The comprehensive directory of support services is the outcome of an initiative led by a team of young Australians who were concerned by the high incidence of gender-based violence in PNG).
Around 70 per cent of women in PNG suffer some kind of violence, abuse or rape during their lives.
In March last year, PNG-born Ayesha Lutschini and her Australian friends Courtney Price and Tasman Bain founded Meri Toksave and set out to provide much needed information to victims of violence throughout PNG.
Working with faith-based organisations and NGOs they gathered addresses and telephone numbers of counselling and legal services, health clinics and police stations, hotlines throughout the nation’s 22 provinces. The information is now compiled in a 93-page directory to assist victims and their families throughout PNG.
The Meri Toksave team flew to Port Moresby for the launch of the first 2250 printed directories, which ran out very quickly. More will be printed says Tasman Bain, the team’s only male representative.
Passionate about social justice, the 21 year old Social Sciences student told Radio Australia that men play an essential role in combatting domestic violence.
