Survivors of violence against women and girls are getting high quality and more coordinated support services across Fiji.

The first in a five-month series of workshops, being held across six provinces, has marked the start of a national rollout of the Fiji Service Delivery Protocol for Responding to Cases of Gender-Based Violence.

More than 30 service providers from as far as Lau, Kadavu and Rotuma attended the workshop.

The project’s aim is to ensure survivors of gender-based violence across Fiji receive high quality support service which is coordinated, through the strengthening of referral pathways.

And it can only be achieved by helping frontline responders – working within police, health, shelters and crisis centres, legal aid and other agencies – to work together following agreed protocols to best support survivors.

The protocols ensure a survivor centered approach to allow victims and survivors of sexual and gender based violence to receive holistic services.

Participants were trained on the core guidelines and principles outlined in the Service Delivery Protocol.

They discussed the challenges faced daily by service providers in the rural and remote islands of the Eastern Division in comparison to the challenges faced in the urban centres in the Central Division.