The Counselling approach sits under the Vanuatu component of the PTL Reducing GBV Project which began between January and July 2015 in Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, and Timor Lest.
In Vanuatu, work has focused largely on working with faith leaders, community leaders, and their spouses to address violence. The project has built on the primary prevention focus of the World Vision International Channels of Hope for Gender methodology and is seeking to strengthen secondary prevention by working with faith and community leaders and their spouses to increase their understanding of GBV and their ability to help perpetrators accept responsibility for and take control over their actions, and assist survivors to develop safety plans and link them to services through counselling skills training. This training has a strong focus on working with men who use violence to accept responsibility for their actions, see violence as a choice, and provide practical tools and strategies to change their behavior. Service providers including police and women’s family violence services participated in Counselling Skills Workshops to strengthen the referral pathways to their services, build technical capacity (when appropriate) and develop an understanding of the faith-based approach to addressing GBV and family violence.
