FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Global Social Change Film Festival & Institute

http://www.socialchangefilmfestival.org

Contact: Colleen Mihal

Email: colleen@socialchangefilmfestival.org

January 5, 2011

Paradise Glossed: Women, Violence, & “The Friendly Islands”

Known to many as the “The Friendly Islands,” the archipelagos of Tongo are nestled amid the cerulean blue seas of the Pacific with Fiji to the west and Samoa to the northeast. However, for thousands of women and children living among the 36 inhabited islands, Tonga doesn’t always live up to its name.

In 2009, 404 cases of domestic violence were reported to the Tongan Ministry of Police, up from 113 in 2000. Since 2000, an average of 23 women have reported physical abuse every month. Putting domestic abuse in perspective, the total population of Tonga in 2010 was 122,580. As women account for 49% of the population, around 4.5% of Tongan women have reported physical abuse to police since 2000. Only 47% of all reported cases become criminal convictions. There are no records on the number of cases that go unreported.

Behind the statistics are stories of survivors who were molested by fathers, beaten by husbands, and forced to live in fear. One Tongan domestic violence survivor recounts, “He [my husband] beat me up inside the taxi and when we got out he took me under a tree. He started tearing off my clothes, tearing everything, even to my inside clothes. I lie down naked and he hit me, he sat on my stomach and squeezed my neck.” Police stopped the woman’s husband just as he was about to stab her with scissors. After her husband was taken to jail, she was taken to the Women Children and Crisis Centre of Tonga (WCCC). The woman states, “I went back to the centre and they helped changed everything.”

The WCCC is an organization dedicated to eliminating violence against women and children and promoting gender equality. The WCCC works to help victims and survivors of rape, sexual harassment, attempted suicide, child abuse, neglect, sexual abuse, and sexual assault. WCCC provides 24-hour counseling, the Mo’ui Fiefia Safe House, legal support, financial counseling, male advocacy, community outreach and awareness, and research and communication.

The WCCC is the recipient of the first Global Social Change Film Festival & Institute (GSCFFI) Activist Award and will be honored at inaugural festival in Ubud, Bali April 13-17, 2011. The WCCC was selected in partnership with The Global Fund for Women, “a publicly supported grantmaking foundation that advances human rights by investing in women-led organizations worldwide.” The GSCFFI aims to create a space where activists, filmmakers, and local communities can come together to promote progressive social change and intercultural understandings. The theme for the Bali 2011 film festival is “Women & Film.”

The WCCC is being honored for their dedication to empowering women and raising awareness about women and violence, an issue that receives scant attention, but is an urgent human rights issue impacting every country in the world. The WCCC will be honored at the GSCFFI along with Nia Dinata, the Filmmaker Honoree, and EngageMedia, the Innovator Award Honoree. In addition receiving the GSCFFI’s Activist Award, the WCCC received the Human Rights Award from the Regional Rights Resource Team and the Secretariat of the Pacific Counsel in December 2010 for its work in advancing gender equality in the Pacific.

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If you’d like more information on GSCFFI (http://www.socialchangefilmfestival.org/), WCCC or like to interview any of the members of GSCFFI, please email colleen@socialchangefilmfestival.org.