Minister Soroi Eoe

In a statement released on December 4^th (yesterday), Minister Soroi Eoe said violence against women and girls is a grave violation of human rights and can be classified as a criminal offence based on the seriousness of the incident.

“But there is room to put an end if we all join our hands and voices together by addressing its root causes,” he stated.

Titled “Missing K3.2m derails child protection effort”, the article said the child protection project, under the integrated community development scheme of the Department of Religion, Youth and Community Development, had ceased operations for lack of funds.

According to the news report, while K3.2 million was allocated in the 2017 Budget, efforts to find traces of tangible outcomes of this multimillion kina child protection project were in vain.

Under the guidance of Minister Soroi Eoe, the Department for Youth, Religion and Community Development has been directed to focus on provinces and communities.

Minister Eoe, who is also member for Kikori district, Gulf Province, has volunteered his district to be the guinea pig of the new programs designed to address rural settings.

"I am willing to give my district as the guinea pig where government policies are channeled through. We'll see if there are impacts in gender-based violence, orphanage, sorcery or women and girls’ issues at the rural level," he said.

The amount is the government allocated grant as per the church state partnership program.

The program is under the office of religion, previously under the Department of National Planning.

Since its shift to the Department of Community Development, Youth and Religion, the occasion today was the first formal gathering of such under the new department.

Minister Soroi Eoe and Secretary Anna Solomon presented the cheques to various churches, represented by each church leader.