VZCZCXRO0663
OO RUEHCHI RUEHFK RUEHHM RUEHKSO RUEHNAG
DE RUEHPB #0031/01 0540833
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 230833Z FEB 10
FM AMEMBASSY PORT MORESBY
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 5811
INFO RUEHPB/AMEMBASSY PORT MORESBY IMMEDIATE 3459
RUEHZU/ASIAN PACIFIC ECONOMIC COOPERATION COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PORT MORESBY 000031 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR S/GWI 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KWMN PREL KPAO PHUM AID CDC COM TRSY PP
SUBJECT: S/GWI PROJECT PROPOSALS - PAPUA NEW GUINEA 
 
REF: STATE 132094, STATE 012531 
 
PORT MORES 00000031  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶1.  Embassy Port Moresby is pleased to submit a proposal 
received from the Consultative Implementation and Monitoring 
Council (CIMC), Family and Sexual Violence Action Committee, 
Skills and Literacy Training Program for Women as Papua New 
Guinea's second preference from post. 
 
 
 
BACKGROUND 
 
 
 
¶2.  The Family and Sexual Violence Action Committee (FSVAC) is 
one of CIMCs 12 sectoral committees. The FSVAC is a coalition of 
NGOs, Government. and private sector organizations. There are 
twenty provincial FSVACs, comprised of NGOs, Government. and 
private sector organization. The FSVAC was established in 2000. 
Its basic purpose to work towards reducing the occurrence of and 
suffering caused by physical, sexual and psychological violence 
especially between family members in the home environment. The 
FSVAC does this through implementation of the Integrated Long 
Term Strategy. The Integrated Long Term Strategy (2001-2006) is 
an outcome of a study conducted in 2001 to analyze the family 
and sexual violence situation in PNG.  The Integrated Long-Term 
Strategy identifies six (6) areas for the committee to focus its 
work on. Institutional strengthening; legal reform; services for 
victims;    working with perpetrators and potential 
perpetrators; Community prevention and responses; trafficking of 
women and children and data collection and research. 
 
 
 
 
 
SUMMARY OF THE PROPOSED PROGRAM 
 
 
 
¶3.  The FSVAC in 2008 and 2009 conducted skills trainings with 
former sex workers identified by the various organizations which 
have planned programs running. The skills trainings targeted sex 
workers especially young women who had been forced to sell sex 
to survive. After the trainings we found that many of those 
trained could not utilize their skills because they are 
illiterate or lack funds to purchase items that would assist 
them to start a new life. Therefore we propose this next phase 
of skills training include literacy training for those who need 
it and to provide start up funds for the sex workers starting a 
new life 
 
. 
 
PROJECT DESCRIPTION 
 
 
 
¶4.  The government of PNG does not offer programs and projects 
to assist women, especially young women and men involved in the 
sex trade or in conflict with the law. Faith-based organizations 
run Boys Towns where male children are sent for rehabilitation 
but there are no such programs for female children. Typically, 
girls run afoul of the law by entering into the sex trade and 
thus participating in this informal and illegal business sector. 
Women and young girls are involved 90% of this informal sector 
trade. 
 
The girls are further marginalized by being illiterate and 
unskilled; there are not many jobs for unskilled labor in PNG, 
and those involved in the informal business sector have very few 
options to further their trade because they lack technology and 
the know- how. 
 
 
 
There have been alarming figures released in the last two years 
revealing that PNG children are in situations ripe for being 
exploited as child labor and in the child sex trade. PNG is not 
an industrialized country and does not have child labor problems 
in the manufacturing and industrial sector, but there is 
evidence of child labor in the homes with children adopted or 
fostered. A recent of immigrants from various parts of Asia in 
recent years has apparently facilitated the entry of some forms 
of organized crimes involved in the child sex trade, which 
various sources state is now booming here. 
 
 
 
The revised Child Welfare Act revealed that the percentage of 
working adults is less than the children who are dependents. The 
Orphan and Vulnerable Children's Report 2004 by Juliet Hunt and, 
 
PORT MORES 00000031  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children Survey 2004 by 
Elizabeth Cox showed that PNG is ripe for sexual exploitation 
and, sexual abuse of children. They reported the following: 
 
 
 
827,500 to 1, 344, 600 children live in violent homes 
 
50% of the victims who report being raped are under the age of 15 
 
1,034,300 adolescents are at risk of sexual exploitation and 
abuse 
 
Unemployed and desperately poor parents with no form of social 
assistance sell their daughters to brokers 
 
Children caught up in the system of sex work, are extremely 
vulnerable and usually remain in sex work as adults. 
 
Children separated from their biological parents are at high 
risk of abuse 
 
10% of the households include adopted children and stepchildren 
- most adoption and fostering is done outside of the legal system 
 
 9% (220,000) of children fewer than 18 years of age are missing 
one or both parents. 
 
10, 000 children live on the streets, homeless or are abandon - 
about 5000 of these children live in Port Moresby streets 
 
The last Census report showed that 676 households in rural areas 
were headed by children aged 10 and 14 
 
 
 
INTERNATIONAL TRAFFICKING OF OWMNE AND CHILDREN: 
 
FSVAC is seeing the effects of young men and women going into 
the sex trade, either to survive or to escape from abuse at 
home. We also are seeing domestic trafficking of young girls and 
children in the sex trade. This trafficking occurs among 
provinces; for example, married men who are land/resource owners 
with money come to urban areas seeking what money can buy 
including women. The level of poverty in urban areas and the 
need for cash to purchase goods and services forces many young 
women into the sex trade or makes them readily agreeable to 
marry men with cash. These young women are transported to the 
villages by these men and find themselves in very violent 
situation with the husbands, their wives and the families. There 
are children also involved from these relationships. 
 
 
 
Closely related to this is intermarriage among people from 
different provinces. A spouse (usually a wife) comes from 
another province, and is abused for this reason. In such 
relationships, the women and children suffer greatly; PNG lacks 
the resources to repatriate them to their home provinces. 
 
 
 
These problems and the increased in poverty levels that many 
families are now faced with in the home has forced many young 
men and women to seek friends on the streets to survive. Many of 
these young men and women are selling sex because they are 
illiterate and, lack funds to get into any training or income 
generating activities. 
 
 
 
 
 
BUDGET 
 
 
 
¶5. 
 
 
 
Two Days National Workshop 
$30,000.00 
 
Provincial and District Workshops                 $40,000.00 
 
Adult Literacy Training 
    $20,000.00 
 
Start up Funds 
         $10,000.00 
 
PORT MORES 00000031  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
 
Total 
    $100,000.00 
 
 
 
 
 
PARTNER ORGANIZATION 
 
 
 
¶6.  The FSVAC partnership that will implement the project 
 
 
 
PACsE (People Against Child Sexual Exploitation) is a coalition 
of NGOs, Government and private sector individuals and 
organizations who are working together against child sexual 
exploitation in PNG. PACsE has developed a national plan of 
action to address the issues of child sexual exploitation, 
education and public awareness on child sex trade and tourism 
 
Poro Supot is an NGO based in Port Moresby, supported by Save 
the Children New Zealand. The organization works with sex 
workers, providing information on sexually transmitted diseases 
and HIV/AIDS. The organization runs a drop in centre and a 
clinic for HIV testing; policing officers' visit night clubs 
distribute information, encourage sex workers to drop in for 
testing and collect condoms used by both men and women. 
 
PNG-WeCARE is a new organization also working with young girls 
between the age of 10 and 15 who are in the sex trade. We-Care 
PNG runs literacy programs with sex workers at the Morata 
settlements and Hohola suburb. Young girls who have dropped out 
of schools because they cannot afford fees are sponsored back to 
school 
 
PNG-YWCA has a sex workers programs, teaching skills, 
educational awareness and literacy training. 
 
The Catholic Life Skills Training Centre based in Port Moresby 
offers skills training to women who would like to go into micro 
economic activities (informal sector). In PNG 95% of those 
involved in informal sector activities are women. At graduation 
these women are either presented with sewing machines, or bolts 
of materials, or pots depending on what areas they have received 
training in. They also may receive financial assistance to 
purchase necessary equipment through the Micro Finance Credit 
Scheme. 
 
The Individual Community Human Rights Advocacy Forum (ICRAF), 
Catholic Family Services, Family Support Centers, Government 
Welfare Services, Safe Houses (Crisis Centers), Provincial 
FSVACs and the community advocates are organizations and 
individuals that provide counseling and defend human rights. 
These are the organizations that seek funding for repatriation 
of women and children. 
 
Provincial Family and Sexual Violence Action Committees are 
provincial committees established to coordinate programs at the 
provincial levels. 
BERG