COVID-19

FWCC attended to over 2000 women since April

July 7, 2021 4:10 pm

Shamima Ali

The Fiji Women Crisis Center received over 2,000 phone calls since the second wave of the pandemic began.

70-percent were domestic violence related matters.

Coordinator Shamima Ali highlighted this during a virtual conference hosted by the Social Democratic Liberal Party.

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Ali says usually they would receive 2000 calls in a year however, domestic violence has since escalated.

She says this is only the tip of the iceberg as they believe there are more unreported cases in the community.

She adds majority of perpetrators are the ones who already have committed the same offense in the past.

Ali says COVID-19 has cracked open what was hidden.

She says they are providing counseling sessions through their 12 phone lines available throughout Fiji as well through government toll free line 1560.

She also says they are working alongside the Ministry for Women and other relevant stakeholders in trying to address the issue and some matters have been reported to police.

Ali says she has been around for 38-years and only now cases are becoming more frequent.

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