Robin Davies speaks with Daisy Plana, CEO of Femili PNG, together with in-house lawyer Delwyn Dau and caseworker Elly Toimbo, on the occasion of the organisation’s tenth anniversary.
Robin Davies speaks with Daisy Plana, CEO of Femili PNG, together with in-house lawyer Delwyn Dau and caseworker Elly Toimbo, on the occasion of the organisation’s tenth anniversary. Femili PNG is a pioneering organisation dedicated to supporting survivors of family and sexual violence in Papua New Guinea through its case management centres in Lae, Port Moresby, and Goroka, as well as a safe house in Port Moresby.
Since its establishment in 2014, Femili PNG has provided comprehensive support to over 7,400 survivors, including food, clothing, legal advice, counseling, and safe transport, while also facilitating access to specialised services like emergency accommodation and legal protection.
A new video illustrates their mission of supporting survivors: Femili PNG Youtube.
As Femili PNG celebrates its 10th anniversary, it continues to evolve and improve its services. The organization has strong data collection and management systems to support tracking of services and outcomes. To that end, Stephen Howes and Estelle Stambolie from the Development Policy Centre have undertaken a comprehensive analysis of survivor data from Femili PNG’s first decade. Their report examines client demographics, types of abuse, services provided, and outcomes across Femili PNG's three case management centres in Lae, Port Moresby, and Goroka.
You can download the report here: Survivor Data from the First Decade of Femili PNG
Devpolicy Talks is the podcast of the Australian National University’s Development Policy Centre. Our producers are Robin Davies, Amita Monterola and Jackie Hanafie. You can read and subscribe to our daily blogs on aid, international development and the Pacific at devpolicy.org, and you can follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter.
You can send us feedback, and ideas for episodes too, to devpolicy@anu.edu.au.
Daisy Plana 00:06
We thought of developing one NGO that would basically work with the survivors and providing information, providing safe transport, encouragement for them to keep going to file cases, and finally working with them to have that empowerment to make informed decisions at the end of the day.
Delwyn Dau 00:28
In terms of IPV cases, especially those perpetrators that are businessmen and with money, it doesn't really get there to the court. There's no justice at the end.
Elly Toimbo 00:40
Maybe that's like the wildest dream I have. I'd see them in PNG operating in all the provinces in the country.
Acknowledgement 00:49
We wish to acknowledge the indigenous people of Australia, the wider Asia Pacific region and other parts of the world and express our respect for their traditional knowledge and practices which stem from a deep connection to the lands and waters they have inhabited for millennia.
Robin Davies 01:08
Welcome to Devpolicy Talks, the podcast of the Development Policy Centre. We're part of the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University on Ngunnawal and Ngambri country in Canberra. I'm Robin Davies. This year, we've relaunched our podcast after a more than two-year hiatus. In this new season, we're bringing you a mix of interviews, event recordings, and more in-depth documentary features relating to the topics we research at the centre, namely, Australia's overseas aid, development in Papua New Guinea and the Pacific, and regional and global development issues. This eighth episode of the season is an interview I recorded with the CEO and two staff of the NGO Femili PNG on the occasion of its 10th anniversary event in Port Moresby on the 3rd of August. Femili PNG is a pioneering organisation dedicated to supporting survivors of family and sexual violence in Papua New Guinea, through its case management centres in Lae, Port Moresby, and Goroka, as well as a safe house in Port Moresby. Since its establishment in 2014 Femili PNG has provided comprehensive support to over 7,400 survivors, including food, clothing, legal advice, counseling, and safe transport, while also facilitating access to specialised services like emergency accommodation and legal protection. Monthly client intakes have grown from around 30 in the early years to 87 in 2023-24. Femili PNG now manages between 800 and 900 open cases at any given time with dedicated caseworkers handling between 45 and 75 open cases each. The organisation has progressively increased the number of interim protection orders granted to its clients, with monthly grants rising from fewer than five in its early years to approximately 20 in recent years. It's also enhanced its emergency accommodation support, now assisting, on average, 85 clients and their dependents in safe houses daily. Femili PNG's work extends beyond individual case management. The organisation has engaged in community outreach to more than 79,000 individuals through various engagement activities. It has also facilitated over 6,000 referrals to partner services. I spoke with three key figures from Femili PNG, who play vital roles in the organisation's work. Daisy Plana, the CEO, has extensive experience as a social worker and former Project Coordinator for Médecins Sans Frontières. Delwyn Dau, the in-house lawyer, provides essential legal advice and support, ensuring survivors can access the necessary legal services and protections. Elly Toimbo, a dedicated caseworker, manages cases involving intimate partner violence, sexual violence and child abuse, coordinating the services needed to support survivors through recovery and legal action. Together, they share Femili PNG's achievements and challenges as it continues to refine and expand its support for survivors of family and sexual violence in PNG. For full disclosure, the Head of the Development Policy Centre, Professor Stephen Howes, was instrumental in the establishment of Femili PNG and sits on its board. I sit on the board of its fundraising and technical support organisation, Femili PNG Australia. All right, so here we are, we're in Port Moresby for the 10th anniversary celebrations of Femili PNG, I am with several staff members of Femili PNG, and maybe to start with, I'll just ask each of you to introduce yourself, so if you can give your name and your position with the organisation. So Daisy.
Daisy Plana 04:46
I'm Daisy Plana, and I work in the capacity of CEO and senior social worker for Femili PNG.
Elly Toimbo 04:53
I am Elly Toimbo, and I've been working as the program manager for Goroka post office for the last four months, but I've been working as a case worker with Lae CMC for almost eight years now.
Delwyn Dau 05:12
And my name is Delwin Dao. I'm the in-house lawyer for the Lae project, and I've been working with Femili PNG since 2019.
Robin Davies 05:22
Daisy, can I start with you? If you could maybe just give us a bit of background on how you came to work with the organisation. What your professional background is?
Daisy Plana 05:32
Yeah, so by profession, I'm a social worker. I'm a licensed social worker back in my home country, which is Philippines, and I came across to work with Femili PNG when I was posted from my previous work with Doctors Without Borders in PNG. When I was in PNG with Doctors Without Borders, the TOR that I had was to hand over back the program to National Department of Health under the ANGAU hospital. So from there, I have requested for an evaluation, external evaluation, so that we can be guided what exactly were the successes for the last eight years where MSF has been operational, providing medical and psychosocial care in the hospital setting. So from the from that request, MSF actually provided one external evaluator coming from Australian National University through Dr Kamalini Lokuge, and from there, from the outcome of the evaluation, we have identified different gaps, especially for the survivors, to know their rights, lack of information about what services that they can access to, and simply the ability to make an informed decision if they really would like to pursue the case, especially when the criminal, when the case is criminal in nature. And in most cases at that time, many because of lack of information, lack of knowledge about what they can actually access and the rights that they have, most of them just drop most of these cases, and they ended up in a mediating in their own way to maintain peace. So from those gaps, we thought of developing one NGO. NGO that would basically work with the survivors and providing information, providing safe transport, encouragement to for them to keep going to file cases, and finally, working with them to simply have that, you know, empowerment, to make informed decision at the end of the day. So we we conceptualise the Femili PNG. Later on, we approached Professor Stephen Howes, and then from there, we approached Stephanie Copus Campbell to assist us, to help us how to pursue.
Robin Davies 08:08
Stephanie at that time, was with the Australian High Commission?
Daisy Plana 08:11
Yeah. So after all the concept and proposal was established, it was submitted to DFAT and yeah, at the time, also, I'm ending my term with Doctors Without Borders. So I just simply made a joke to Stephen, if this will be materialised, let me know I would be happy to come back to PNG. And after a few months, he let me know that it was successful. The funds was actually released and announced by the Department of Foreign Affairs. So yeah, that's where the and I came back eventually to PNG, to help in establishment of Femili PNG. See, it was in July. I came back June 2014 and then the set up and July 25 was the first case that came to our door.
Robin Davies 09:01
So that's very unusual. You weren't recruited for the job. You were here when, when the idea was formed, and then you stepped into the role?
Daisy Plana 09:09
Partly.
Robin Davies 09:10
And how did the organisation grow from that beginning? What did it look like at the beginning compared to now?
Daisy Plana 09:16
I think after 10 years, it's really a big difference, and lot of change. In July, way back in July 2014 we had only seven staff, including myself. So we had two case workers, one driver, one admin, one admin assist and one logistic, so one cleaner. So basically, these are the composition of the team. And along the way, in 2018 we started opening also Port Moresby through the Bel isi initiative. 2021 we opened Goroka. So from seven, we are now 67 so yeah, 67-66 we're all PNGean, and I'm the only one that is expert.
Robin Davies 10:04
In the initial location in Lae, how did you go about generating demand for your services? How did you make people aware? Or did knowledge just spread organically?
Daisy Plana 10:16
We basically have a very open office at the time. I think the even office space is quite hard for us to really source out at the time because of the limitation. So we got this open space, and because we are all in one space, we cannot maintain confidentiality. So the strategy that we used to do before is to coordinate with the hospital, with the police, with the welfare and if they have referral cases to us, we actually do interview in their spaces on the confidential spaces that are available.
Robin Davies 10:51
So it was through referrals initially, so not people walking into the service?
Daisy Plana 10:56
Yeah, we don't have the walk in at the time. I think we only have the walk in when we move, it was at 2017 when we signed MOU with the Lutheran we moved office. And it was Newcrest at the time now Newmont that helped us to refurbish, renovate the Lutheran Health Service Centre at the floor so that we can do walk in clients, we can see clients directly at that time. So that's where only in 2017 yeah, so we had four confidential room allocated to confidential interview.
Robin Davies 11:31
Today, the infrastructure that you have now, so you've got the case management centre and a safe house here in Port Moresby. And what are the facilities in Goroka and Lae?
Daisy Plana 11:42
Yeah in Lae, we have only the case management centre. That's the only one that we running right now in Lae. In Goroka is the same. We have case management centre, but Goroka is a bit of another unique structure, because we sits under the provincial government. The centre is attached somehow to community development, yeah, and that's one of the smallest team we have. It's a six staff centre. So currently it's small, and though we don't have the safe houses in Lae and in Goroka, we are mostly supporting all the safe houses in the two provinces, because in most cases, the safe houses can only offer roofing, but in terms of operational for food, for the need of the client, that's very challenging for them financially, too. So Femili PNG, in order to help also our partner, especially the safe houses, we take the commitment to support the food for the clients, the toiletries for the clients and other needs, safe transport of the clients, medical care, if there are some specialised medical care that required.
Robin Davies 13:01
Can you give me a sense of the workload, the client numbers, broadly speaking, and how that's changed over time?
Daisy Plana 13:08
It depends, really, on the season, and if there are some political situations also that affects the number of clients that access our services so but as far as our experience is constant. Yeah, it's constant number.
Robin Davies 13:28
Your notional target is about 72 per month across the three locations. Do you sometimes experience excess demands, surges that you can't deal with?
Daisy Plana 13:38
None so far, I think we are coping with the number, because not in some months in there are quite low, there are that high, but I think the capacity of the caseworker to attend are quite equipped enough.
Robin Davies 13:55
Let's say you did have 72 people entering counseling and support each month. I assume a lot of those require attention over quite a long period. So there's an ongoing caseload, as well?
Daisy Plana 14:05
As far as the data that we have out of those total number, roughly it's the 30% that continue to receive long term services for us. Unfortunately, there are cases that drop in the process, they only have visited at least once or twice the centre, and some, they didn't come back, because the first and the second visit when they receive information, it's enough, while others, I think, the readiness also to really proceed with the case, because during the process of the orientation and talking with the clients, we also explained to them consequences. We also explained to them the process, the length of all the passes that they would like to go through. We like unfortunately, too. There are a lot of factors in the system that could hinder fast tracking cases that we really need to work. Closely and more effort with our partners when it comes to dealing with cases. So yeah, the issue of readiness of clients is also factor here they we noticed that some of them, they just simply want to verbalise their concern. But when we when a caseworker is already processed. What exactly they want to happen with a case that's where they they realise that I'm not ready yet. So we always allow and inform them that you can always come back when you think you're ready. Elly, can I ask you, as a case worker, what are the needs that you have to meet? What kind of advice and support do you have to give people?
Elly Toimbo 15:42
When a client comes into the office, she or he has different needs, and one which we assess and try to make sure that it's seen at the very first place is their safety needs, and then we see if they’re physically okay, they would also need maybe some clothes. Someone just runs away from threats and danger. One also may need some food. And also other needs would be logistic support, basically, maybe transport some funds for maybe bus fare back to their homes or to their families or relatives. So one survivor comes with different needs,
Robin Davies 16:30
And sometimes you'll be connecting to legal advice and support, or you might need to be in touch with the police force. How easily is that done? Do you have good cooperation and coordination with those other actors in the in the system?
Elly Toimbo 16:45
I think when the office started, we had a bit of challenge, maybe because we were a new player on the ground. But as we continue to work, we also build that relationship with our partners on the ground, especially the police, the hospital, welfare and the court. So when in terms of legal needs, we make referral and then we lies with the police officers. So we could bring the client to the police station and everywhere connected to the police officer, or we can call the police officers and make referral asking or informing the client to go and see the police officer that depends on our safety assessment as well and also the capacity of the survivor, if she's able to go by herself with the referral letter that we provide to her, if she cannot, then we bring her to the police station and connect it to the police officer.
Robin Davies 17:47
What about the safety of the centre itself and its staff? Do you face threats from perpetrators? Is that an issue?
Elly Toimbo 17:55
Especially in Lae we did a few times had encounter with their perpetrators. They do come to the office, but in most cases, they're not that violent. They just want to know maybe why their wife is coming to the office. Or maybe their wives also have been missing for the last many days, few days, because they are kept in the safe houses. So they would come to the office and inquire for that. Sometimes we have partners, our service providers on the ground, like the police, they they would also inform that maybe a wife is at Femili PNG office. Or they would come and, you know, ask to find out where their wife is.
Robin Davies 18:37
Daisy, you said that the Goroka centre is attached to the Department of Community Development, that's interesting, so it's not seen as a separate NGO. It's almost part of the department, is that right?
Daisy Plana 18:50
Our office is given to us to use by the community development so most times when survivors come, or even perpetrators come, they see it as one of the office for the community development.
Robin Davies 19:03
Does that imply that in the long term, perhaps the Department of Community Development will actually provide funding, or is it purely accommodation?
Daisy Plana 19:12
That may be something that they see will talk about.
Elly Toimbo 19:15
Actually the long-term plan, why we do this kind of model is really to push the government to take over, and if there will be no chance that they can take over, at least it can be supported by them, and that skills and knowledge in helping survivors would be at least retained in the system of the government through the Community Development Department.
Robin Davies 19:41
I wanted to ask you, Elly about how far the situation in Goroka and the highlands differs from the situation in Lae or Port Moresby overall. Is there a higher level of violence or a different type of violence, or is it approximately the same?
Elly Toimbo 19:57
What differs from Goroka office is that we get to see a lot of sorcery-related survivors. So most of our clients, both male, female and children, are survivors of sorcery accusation related violence. So that is the most obvious. That differs from the two other officers, which get to see most IPV cases, intimate partner violence, maybe child abuse and sexual violence survivors, but ours is a bit different, because we get to see a lot of SARV survivors.
Robin Davies 20:33
SARV being the acronym for sorcery accusation related violence, and what proportion, very roughly, do you think fall into that category?
Elly Toimbo 20:41
For the last four months, I would say half of the clients that we get to see are SARV cases.
Robin Davies 20:47
Delwyn, your role includes providing legal advice across all three offices.
Delwyn Dau 20:50
I do provide legal advice if they require or they request, yeah.
Robin Davies 20:58
Does your role as a legal officer, include advocacy with the Department of Justice or the or the police for changing policies and practices?
Delwyn Dau 21:06
Yes, when there's invitations to participate at the workshops, I do attend them and provide what the case management or Femili PNG has been the data for it, and in that way, it helps those government agencies to really implement or make changes to the policies or the legislation. So there's been big changes happening here.
Robin Davies 21:31
What would you say about law enforcement in this area when somebody does want to press charges against a partner or the police want to press charges, what eventually happens in most cases, are many perpetrators actually convicted or otherwise penalised for their actions?
Delwyn Dau 21:49
That depends on the survivors, the clients themselves, if they want to pursue. Yeah, so like in the first instance, they would want to pursue arrest, but then when they arrive at the police station, it's another story. Yes, they somehow find that forgiveness or a second chance given to the husband or the partner, and they don't pursue the arrest.
Robin Davies 22:15
And is that because of the complexity of the legal process or the complaints process, or is it because the attitude of the police is not favourable, is not an incentive for them to continue with charges?
Delwyn Dau 22:28
That's also an effect as well. Yes, so you have the survivors, you also have the police officers and the legal system in itself. Yeah, it does take a while our police officers. Yes, they perform their duty. However, like what I said with the survivors, they don't go ahead and do the arrest immediately because of the changing of minds. So they take time, yeah, to see where it goes.
Robin Davies 22:55
And if someone does press charges and the case makes it to court, what's the attitude in the judiciary towards intimate partner violence, in particular?
Delwyn Dau 23:03
In terms of IPV cases, especially those perpetrators that are businessmen and with money, persons with money, it doesn't really get there to the court. There's no justice at the end. It's either it gets dropped or the survivors are forced to mediate outside so the cases doesn't proceed or progress. The IPV cases that goes to the court, we don't really see perpetrators being arrested and sentenced, but with child abuse cases, especially sexual penetration of children, those definitely get committed. We've got several of them being committed from the district court to the National Court, and some are still ongoing, and that is one of our success for Femili PNG.
Robin Davies 23:49
Are there informal mediation processes that are available to women who don't want to go into the court system?
Delwyn Dau 23:57
We do have referral in terms of counseling. So some survivors, women, they come they they just want counseling. They don't want to pursue arrest or even go to the court. They just want someone to listen and give advice or guidance to both parties. In terms of mediation, it's always the police. They now do the mediation with whoever's the community leader or the village called ministry with both parties.
Robin Davies 24:21
Daisy, if I come back to you, you mentioned Bel isi earlier in the discussion, could you just say a little about what Bel isi is, and why it was created?
Daisy Plana 24:29
Yeah, the same as the Goroka, Bel isi is another unique program, and Bel isi is basically another entity which is initiated by a specific number of businesspeople and some government leaders also, and some financial institutions in the country. So the Bel isi has been established after the IFC evaluation on the loss in terms of the absences of their employee because of the domestic violence that they are experiencing.
Robin Davies 25:07
Is this the International Finance Corporation?
Daisy Plana 25:09
Yeah, the Finance Corporation. So they ran an evaluation where one of the conclusion was that there is a lot of losses, financial losses because as one of the outcome of the domestic violence that some of the employees are going through. And so the initiative, the village initiative, was came to the picture at first, really, to support the employees to to access safe house when their life is at risk, and also to help the employer, the institutions where these employees working to change policies and to establish a family and sexual violence in the workplace, and hoping that doing the change would eventually allow the the business sector to be more supportive to the employee and the situation of the employee while they're facing violence in their life. So from there, all this concept again started, and they asked Femili PNG to operate the program for them. So this is the reason why we have the safe house and the policy safe house as well as the case management. The reason why we have also the case management in POM because Femili PNG is a charitable organisation, and our service is free. So one of the negotiation that we did when we are asked to be the to be the operator for the we see is to continue to allow Femili PNG also to serve client from public.
Robin Davies 26:50
And I understand the companies who participate pay an annual subscription of anywhere from 15,000 to 100,000 kina for access to the service.
Daisy Plana 27:00
Yeah, yeah. There's a different tier that they can pay depends on the number of the employee that they have, if it's a small one. So they can say, perhaps 15,000 and if it's quite big and they have other branches, then they can say, okay, we'll pay 100,000 or 50,000 and some also give income kind like technical support and advices, so or certain donations of furnitures. Yeah, basically, that is really initiated from the business sector side and fully supported until now by the business sector.
Robin Davies 27:38
And this funding allows you then to operate as a public good, you're still available to people in the community who need the services.
Daisy Plana 27:44
Yeah, we need the service, but that subscription is not only for the safe house in the case management, that includes the assistance to for the training, for the vocal person or for the leaders in the business houses, as well as in changing policy to have a policy in place in the workplace. Those covers for that subscription, and that is those other areas, is done by BCFW, one of our partners.
Robin Davies 28:15
Femili PNG's initial funding came through the Australian High Commission. You've obviously diversified. You've got private sector funding through Bell isi, and then you have Australian community funding through your support organisation, Femili PNG Australia. Can you say a little bit about how that relationship works between Femili PNG, the NGO that is registered here, and the Australian support organisation?
Daisy Plana 28:39
So when Femili PNG has been established, we have recognised that in order to sustain the organisation long term, as well as financially, we need to have another supporter that can really help Femili PNG to do that outside PNG, because I think it's very common that most of the NGO requires not only local funding, but also funding from outside or internationally. So looking at that and the Friends of Femili PNG was established with the purpose that it will actually help Femili PNG for its sustainability. And from there, from one staff, they also developed and become bigger. And they used to support us with the management of program, some advices, as well as the proposal reporting to our donors, to the point that they're helping us to develop our database system also, and yeah, basically having a support to provide some technical assistance so to Femili PNG while we are doing the work here.
Robin Davies 30:01
And I understand that you've also received some funding, not continuous, but some funding from the PNG government, through the Treasury?
Daisy Plana 30:09
Yeah, that was, I think, in 2022 through the Go PNG grant.
Robin Davies 30:15
I believe you've now been able to access some United Nations Fund.
Daisy Plana 30:19
The United Nations Fund, we received some grant from them during the time of Covid, actually, but that's what they call the spotlight, UN spotlight. And the program went through originally, that's supposed to be only for one year, but because of Covid, there was a lot of pending you know, there's a lot of challenges. So from one year, we expanded the program up to two years, and that's now finished. We ended in 2023 yeah, and the focus of that fund is really into training partners on the family and sexual violence and related laws, case management, how they can also serve survivors in a more trauma informed way. And yeah, basically, those are the coverage of the UN spotlight. Currently, we just signed the agreement with UNFPA to work in another three provinces and Hela and Madang and Goroka, yeah. And the purpose of this is really how we can allow CSO to run or to manage cases on their own, and the role of Femili PNG is to train them and to provide technical support for them.
Robin Davies 31:37
So particularly in Hela and Medang, where you don't have a base, you will ask your existing staff to provide advice and support to other organisations?
Daisy Plana 31:46
The idea, or the concept, is to identify a certain CSO that is actively working with the survivors and on the processes of how it to manage cases, and how these cases will be supported by different referral pathways, like the police, the welfare as well as the hospital. All the ones that deals with the survivors and Femili PNG will do the training for them on the case management as well as a consultation, who exactly will do the would manage cases among you know, the CSOs on the ground, and once they make that decision, then it will be like the approach is replicated, duplicated, not Femili PNG, because we understand that Femili PNG is too expensive to, you know, to keep opening its own offices, but we recognise that in other provinces, there are active CSO, active NGOs that are already doing the work. So why don't we impart the knowledge and the skills that we have in managing cases and helping survivors.
Robin Davies 33:02
I did want to ask you that question, actually, what are your ambitions for expanding the services of Femili PNG itself? Do you think in time, you will open other offices in other provinces of PNG?
Daisy Plana 33:15
I think financially wise, it's really tough because now to look for funding. I think it's quite difficult. From our current funding, we already have been cut 11% and we are asked to diversify the rest of the cuts. So I think the best way forward for now is the one that we signed with UNFPA, if there are possible grant that could allow Femili PNG to duplicate or replicate the work, and that, I think we will go through. But opening Femili PNG is quite big commitment to do.
Robin Davies 33:53
And that cut that you referred to, the 11% cut, is that, because of fluctuations in private donations, what's behind that?
Daisy Plana 34:00
That's basically the cuts from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, from Australian government funding that we receive. And I think that's pretty normal, that while you are growing as an organisation, and it's become a longer, I think every donor would like to see also that you are diversifying your funds from other source. Yeah, that is somehow a normal, you know thing that is happening right now.
Robin Davies 34:27
This might be a question for any of you actually, do you have a, at least an intuitive sense of the level of unmet demand? I mean, I'm absolutely sure that the services provided by Femili PNG touching a small proportion of the need. And likewise, the other organisations working in this area, do you have a sense of how much demand is going completely unmet at this point, or is it just too hard to say? And it might be different in different locations?
Elly Toimbo 34:55
There are times when clients come very late in the afternoon, you know, they are not safe, and they would like to go to the safe houses. And so we would call up the safe houses to see if they will be able to, you know, accommodate them. And then we would also look at who's going to transport them to the safe house at this hour. And then we will also look at when they go to the safe house during this time, who's providing food for them. So there are times that we feel that we can do more, but then we have limitations. And there are always there used to be. Also some clients like they come knowing or hearing about our services, but then they do not fall under our criteria. So there would be someone who's been beaten by the in law or the uncle, or could be, you know, someone that's that does not follow under criteria. And then when we hear them out, we really, you know, see and feel that we can support but then they do not fall under criteria. So we would just, you know, provide information and allow them to go. So there are times that we also feel that there's more needs to be done, but then we don't have that capacity.
Robin Davies 36:18
Your perspective from Lae, Delwyn?
Delwyn Dau 36:20
We don't have safe house or operated by Femili PNG we rely on the partners on the ground, also partners. They have safe houses. And like Elly said, those that come late, it takes our time to actually go and refer even ask the safe house manager. And you know their capacity is also limited.
Robin Davies 36:41
But again, the question for all three of you, what are the things that make your jobs most difficult at the moment? What gives you your biggest headache as you try to do your job every day?
Elly Toimbo 36:51
Because we do case management, we would like to see that our survivors, that we are cease, get the services that they need, and their objectives are met, but then to get their objectives met depends not just on us, but with the different partners that we are working together with. So there are, I mean, most times we refer survivors who want the police to arrest the perpetrators, but then police would not arrest the perpetrators. They have their own challenges. Like most times, they don't have fuel to go to the perpetrators location. They wouldn't have the car to go to there and go there. They wouldn't have fuel. Sometimes there would be just one officer, and then he or she would be unable to leave the office. So getting you know, assisting clients and seeing that they do not get the services that they need from the service providers is sometimes frustrating. But then we also acknowledge that they also have their own challenges, like manpower, logistic, support. Yes, they have a long list of challenges.
Daisy Plana 38:05
I think for me it's in the level of the management, because I work more in that level. One of the greatest challenge for me is when you are losing a long term staff. So that's really hard because you invested and they knew the in and outs of the organisation, and suddenly they will just need to move on. I know that it's also pretty normal, but you know the institutionalisation of the organisation and the skills they are living with it, and you need again to train. You need again to trust. You need again to simply develop skills from the new ones that will be coming. Yeah, it is difficult. It is hard, but, yeah, I think it's just simply.
Robin Davies 38:54
And is that turnover related to constant exposure to trauma, or is it more a feature of the labor market more generally?
Daisy Plana 39:02
Yeah, I think it's really more on the market, because in most cases, our staff are known to be very disciplined, are known to be providing quality service and really skilled and eligible in the work. So they're actually highly preferred by many. It's hard to compete, right?
Robin Davies 39:24
Delwyn, you had a thought?
Delwyn Dau 39:26
Basically, as you know, the lawyer sitting inside the office and speaking to the survivors, go through the statement with them, and you find out that, yes, there's, you know, criminal offenses being committed here. And like Elly said, we have challenges with police, yeah, and they have their own limitations as well. And sometimes I think that okay, they do need assistance or training in terms of really knowing the law. Some officers don't know the law, or they are, especially sorcery. Sorcery act has been repealed, and we don't have that, but they're still relying on that. So our offices really need to know the basic laws and the ones that we are dealing within this space, the Family Protection Act, and you have the local act, and also our criminal code on the sexual offenses against children and as well as sorcery. So I see that they really need that training, and also how to do paperwork and to submit to court.
Robin Davies 40:29
Is access to medical services a substantial constraint if someone comes with serious injuries?
Delwyn Dau 40:34
Our partner that we regularly refer to is Family Support Center with the General Hospital, and they see all our survivors, yeah, IPV child abuse cases, especially sexual penetration, and even sorcery as well.
Robin Davies 40:53
Perhaps the last question I'll ask is about the future. We have today, had a joint meeting of the two boards of Femili PNG and Femili PNG Australia. And part of the conversation was about the next 10 years. We're celebrating the first 10 years today. But Daisy, where would you see the organisation in 10 years from from now? Would you see it as substantially larger in scale or providing different services? What's your vision for the next 10 years?
Daisy Plana 41:23
I still want to see Femili PNG providing, you know, the case management helping survivors, because I think that's the very heart of the organisation. That's a very the very reason of its existence. And perhaps we can do more formalised outreach program more into developing more volunteers and committee leaders in the districts or provinces that we are working and, yeah, to do more training for the local leaders, because the issue is coming from the local places and people that can solve that is also those leaders that are, you know, from that area. So we need to invest more of that. And, yeah, I think use the experience that we have to train other CSOs, because there are many of them, and we're hoping that they can be also open to that, and they're happy to learn from, you know, what we do, and they themselves are willing to do it, you know, with the guidance of Femili PNG in their own provinces. And, yeah, I hope that we may not be able to bring Femili PNG centers in other provinces, but the approaches are duplicated and replicated. Yeah, and I can see that we are happy to provide technical and support to those willing to duplicate the program that we have.
Robin Davies 42:54
Elly and Delwyn, is there anything you'd like to say about your hopes for the future of the organisation?
Elly Toimbo 42:59
Well mine is mine may be a little bit different from Daisy, because we have, you know, clients coming in, and there's a way that we get their feedback from the services that they receive. We call it getting client satisfaction. Most of these survivors would say, I'm from this province, the services that you provide is just very, very good compared to no other offices. Do you see a chance of establishing this office in my province so my people can benefit from that? So maybe, like, maybe that's like, the wildest dream I have. I'd see Femili PNG operating in all the provinces in the country.
Robin Davies 43:41
What do you think about that, Delwyn?
Delwyn Dau 43:43
From the legal section of it, I would like to at least have more lawyers working with Femili PNG.
Robin Davies 43:50
Would you hope to have some capacity to educate police officers? Or would you see that as not really the organisation's role?
Delwyn Dau 43:58
We do, we do conduct trainings upon request.
Robin Davies 44:01
Is there anything else you would like to say before we finish?
Daisy Plana 44:05
The bulk of the work that Femili PNG provides is really focusing only on practical side of the need of the survivors, and in this kind of program, we really rely on the response from the partner service providers that we have, such as welfare such as police, as well as the other government institutions, because when the client requires protection, we cannot provide that. It's the police when the client requires medical care. That's again, the hospital. So in this work, we really push all projects that we have to work and to build strong partnership and collaboration with and across all the referral pathways that we have. But it would be also very important to for me to speak now that most of the. So the outcome of these cases will be actually good, if we will be across all the service providers are going to work in collaboration. But currently it is very challenging also for our partners, because they are really lacking of resources from human resource from fuel, also from vehicle. So we there's so much expectation, because they we always say that it's their responsibility. But on the other hand, we see also how they try, you know, of what we have, and we are hoping one day that, especially for the government institutions, they will be fully resourced as well so that they can fully do and accomplish the responsibility that they have with the survivors.
Robin Davies 45:47
Well, thank you. Daisy, Elly, Delwyn, I really appreciate you making time to speak with me today. I look forward to your speech tonight, Daisy at the 10th anniversary event, thanks again. As Femili PNG celebrates its 10th anniversary, it continues to evolve and improve its services. The organisation has significantly enhanced its data collection and management systems, allowing for better tracking of services and outcomes. This data driven approach enables Femili PNG to identify areas for improvement and adapt its strategies to better serve survivors of family and sexual violence. To that end, Stephen Howes and Estelle Stambolie from the Development Policy Centre have undertaken a comprehensive analysis of survivor data from Femili PNG's first decade. Their report examines client demographics, types of abuse, services provided and outcomes across Femili PNG's three case management centers in Lae, Port Moresby and Goroka. You can find a link to the report in the show notes. Devpolicy Talks is the podcast of the Australian National University's Development Policy Centre. Show Notes are posted to Simplecast. Our producers are Robin Davies, Amita Monterola and Jackie Hanafie. You can read and subscribe to our daily blogs on aid, international development, and the pacific at devpolicy.org and you can follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter. You can send us feedback and ideas for episodes too to devpolicy@anu.edu.au. Join us again in another fortnight for the next episode of Devpolicy Talks.