We are excited to report that Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop has announced $3 million of funding over three years from the Australian aid program to establish the Papua New Guinea Family and Sexual Violence Case Management Centre (CMC), based in Lae.
In her announcement, Ms Bishop committed Australia to “continue to deliver broad-ranging assistance to help Papua New Guinea to provide essential services to survivors of family and sexual violence.”
She said that “Australia will fund a new PNG Family and Sexual Violence Case Management Centre in Lae, with a team of individual case workers to ensure women and children receive medical support as well as the immediate shelter, legal support and other services they need. The team will train other service providers, and advocate for more effective services.”
The CMC is a new PNG-based non-governmental organization managed by a committee of PNG and Australian stakeholders. It is currently in the preparatory phase, and will commence work in Lae, PNG’s second largest city, later in 2014.
The goal of the CMC is to improve access to and effectiveness of services for the survivors of family and sexual violence in PNG, initially in Lae. In line with this, the CMC will undertake three types of activities: case-management services for survivors of family and sexual violence; co-ordination with other service providers; and operations- and research-based advocacy
We are extremely grateful to the Australian Government for their funding.
All funding from the Australian aid program will be going toward direct service delivery for survivors and related support costs. All members of the CMC Management Committee, Technical Advisory Group and Lae Advisory Council are working free of charge. The start-up of the case management centre has been supported by Australian National University staff, also free of charge. They will continue to provide ongoing support on the same basis.
We are also delighted to announce that Oxfam will be partnering with us. Australian aid funding will flow to Oxfam, and from Oxfam to the CMC. Through the partnership with Oxfam, the CMC will also be able to benefit from its vast experience of working with partner organizations, and tackling gender-based violence, including in PNG.
We are now well advanced in our preparatory work. Please watch this website for further developments. To follow the progress of this project as it develops, subscribe to our mailing list. We welcome queries and expressions of interest. Email us at [email protected].
