Rapes and other sexual assaults go unreported during natural disasters and this also leads to the spread of Sexually Transmitted Infections due to the lack of essential services.
Red Cross Disaster Program Manager, Vuli Gauna addressing participants at the Disaster Awareness Workshop this morning in Lami said the lack of services like lighting at evacuation centres is one of the main concerns.
Gauna added that a survey was carried out in 2004 which was a response due to the flooding in the North and as well as a few tropical cyclones where they interviewed people staying at evacuation centres and it was revealed that a common factor was the lack of security and lighting which resulted in a number of sexual assaults.
Meanwhile, workshop facilitator and UN Human rights officer, Anne Thurin also highlighted the need to have proper monitoring of evacuation centres.
Thurin said statistics from the National Disaster Management office, showed that there were a total of 13,002 evacuees in 1,804 evacuation centres around the country during Hurricane Tomas and in some cases close to 1,000 people were sheltering in one school.
The workshop which is being attended by all Divisional commissioners, Red Cross, DISMAC officials and other stakeholders from Government is underway at Novotel Lami.
Sexual assaults go unreported during natural disasters
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