HIGH COMMISSION OF CANADA EXTENDS COVID-19 SUPPORT

​Samoa Victim Support Group (SVSG) is pleased to announce that the High Commission of Canada in New Zealand through its Canada Fund for Local Initiative, had approved a grant for SVSG to implement a 6-months project entitled “Gender Based Violence Responsive Services for Women, Children and Vulnerable groups in the context of COVID-19.”
 
Nicolas Sabourin, the Counsellor for the High Commission of Canada (NZ), relayed the good news to SVSG, expressing the Fund’s willingness to work with SVSG once again to support the most vulnerable population in Samoa.  “We look forward to working with SVSG on this project over the coming year.”
 
SVSG has provided frontline services through the operation of a 24 hour toll free Help Line for women, children and those seeking help during the COVID-19 lockdown. This project seeks to strengthen the ‘virtual response’ mechanism withing SVSG to ensure a continued successful intervention against Gender Based Violence (GBV) and the provision of support services to the at-risk population.  Alongside the Help Line, this project will also enhance capacity through social media and email correspondence, helping to mitigate the resource and staff pressures currently faced by the Group.
 
The High Commission of Canada had previously provided support to SVSG through the CFLI oer the years, from 2011 with the compilation of legal information brochures; supporting the livelihood training of unemployed women survivors of violence with disabilities in 2014 and more recently, supporting the income generation activities of self-employed nofotane women in 2018.
 
According to the SVSG President Siliniu Lina Chang, “the support from local and international partners is vital to SVSG’s ability to scale up delivery of gender based violence responsive services to the most vulnerable groups amidst the global pandemic, and we welcome once more, the working in partnership with the High Commission of Canada New Zealand to scale up delivery of GBV responsive services in the context of COVID-19.”