genderberg.com - Prostitution claim is a known fact

http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=29943

Fiji Times Online
Sunday, October 9, 2005

Families sending their daughters into prostitution is a known fact, social workers said yesterday.

They were commenting on findings in the book, Women and Men of Fiji Islands: Gender Statistics and Trends by University of the South Pacific Population Studies lecturer Dharma Chandra and government statistician Vasemaca Lewai.

Fiji Council of Social Services executive director Hassan Khan said it was disappointing to read yesterday's front-page report, saying it showed the level of poverty in the community.

"It's disappointing that to date the Bureau of Statistics has not finalised the extent of poverty in Fiji after three years of waiting.

"There's no official figures on poverty," he said.

Mr Khan said it was a signal to all civil society organisations to be active in community development and to work together so they could help people out of their misery.

He said it was a sad reflection on Fiji. "We can only pray and work hard to help those people overcome their misery."

Fiji Women's Crisis Centre coordinator Shamima Ali said the findings were what they had been saying for 10 years.

"We totally agree with that report particularly on prostitution and domestic violence.

"We've always maintained that a lot of women run away because of sexual assault and abuse in their home.

"The findings maintain what our statistics have and that's after 20 years of being out there in the community," she said.

Police spokeswoman Sylvia Low said poverty was a wide issue and girls taking to the streets to support their families was just one of the many faces of poverty. "It's sad that people are desperate enough to do this."