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	Plea to Stop Abuse By Timoci Vula Fiji Times August 16, 2011 http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=177923 ROKO Tui Cakaudrove Ro Aca Mataitini has pleaded with chiefs and village and church leaders in the province not to take advantage of their position to abuse the vulnerability of women and children. Instead, Ro Aca is urging them to work together to ensure women, young girls and children are protected from any form of physical and or sexual exploitation. He made the comment following three separate reports of sexual offences lodged at the Savusavu Police Station last Wednesday, August 10, involving young girls and boys with adults as the alleged perpetrators. "All headmen and tikina (district) reps, we need to be working together and we should be seen to be doing the right thing," Ro Aca said. "They must work together to see that in their villages, women and children are protected. They must talk to church leaders in their villages because this is something they need to be talking about." Ro Aca reminded church leaders and pastors to be of role models in the protection of women and children. "They should not take advantage of their positions they hold in society to abuse women and children. In fact, we must all work together to see to the implementation and success of the child protection program (CPP)," he said. Ro Aca said while the sexual abuse of women and children was happening nationwide, for the province alone, there had been cases in the past where village headmen and heads of mataqali (sub clan) were involved in such cases. Ro Aca said the CPP had come at the right time and it needed to be implemented immediately by all villages and districts in the province. He meets district reps in three tikina on Taveuni today with this issue high on the agenda.
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