The National Community Policing Unit of the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF) has launched a nationwide Family Violence program with delivery of family violence training to the RSIPF officers and other stakeholders.
A statement from the Police Media Unit said, the Family Violence program started towards the end of April 2015 and the Family Violence team has already visited Malaita and Western Provinces.
Constable Daisy Kariamae, the RSIPF National Family Violence Coordinator who leads the training, highlighted that there has been a positive engagement between the RSIPF and stakeholders in the provinces that the Family Violence Team has already visited.
The objective is to encourage stakeholders to strengthen and promote a positive working relationship; a partnership that would support and assist the RSIPF and the community in their continuous effort to address family violence in the country.
“The training has been undertaken to deliver key messages around the reporting and recording of family violence matters using the appropriate police forms,” Mrs Kariamae explained.
“We have also taken a proactive approach and given an overview of the Family Protection Act including police safety notices, protection orders and what other agencies will be doing in relation to the Act.”
Mrs Kariamae added, “we have done this so that all parties involved have an idea of what the Act entails and what the responsibilities will be once it comes into force.”
The training focused on gender based violence and has been looking at how the RSIPF can assist in establishing a referral network and information sharing scheme that ensure that the needed and appropriate assistance is made available to assist victims of violence.
During the training, RSIPF officers were presented with how the National Community Policing office is accumulating that is being collected and analysing family violence data this to assist the RSIPF and other community agencies to reduce family violence in Solomon Islands.
The training is expected to expand out to all provinces over the next few months and will continue into next year when it is hoped the Family Protection Act will be gazetted.
“The Solomon Islands is said to be the ‘happy isles’ but our family violence statistics are alarmingly high,” she said.
“This issue does not belong to the RSIPF but it belongs to all of us and we can all play our part in helping make our country a safer place for our women and pikini to live in,” Kariamae said.
“It is time we all realise that family violence is not a ‘private business’, it is a crime and we can all work together in saying ‘NAF NAO’ and show that our country is the happy isles.”
Individuals working in or organisations working with the family violence field and want further information about what RSIPF is doing and how you can help are encouraged to contact the RSIPF National Family Violence office at the Rove Police headquarters in Honiara.
– Police Media Unit
