FRUITFUL MEETING: Yong (seated centre) flanked by Lau and Sibu police chief ACP Mohd Kamal Kordi.
SIBU: The One Stop Crisis Centre (OSCC) will be more aggressive in its handling of domestic violence cases.
OSCC Sarawak chairperson Datuk Lily Yong said this is due to the increasing trend of such cases.
“Cases of domestic violence seem to have no end and are on the rise. We are worried about this especially occurrences of child abuse cases,” she told a press conference yesterday.
Yong said OSCC would go to rural areas next year to explain domestic violence to the rural community, especially children.
“We want children in the rural area to know their rights,” she said, adding that OSCC would give talks in schools and distribute leaflets to students.
This would involve cooperation from the police, hospital and Welfare Department, with the launching of the programme to be in Kuching on Jan 13.
“OSCC will also provide training for community heads like longhouse headmen, Ketua Kampung, Penghulu and Kapitan to deal with overcoming related domestic violence,” she said.
OSCC, which has been set up in all 21 hospitals in the state, helps victims of domestic violence to lodge a report at one place.
Meanwhile, OSCC Sibu chairperson Datuk Janet Lau said all cases and information of victims reported to OSCC would be kept confidential.
As such, she urged victims of domestic violence not to be ashamed or afraid to lodge their reports.
A total of 193 domestic violence cases were reported at OSCC Sibu from January to November, with 148 of them involving women.
From that figure, 151 involved cases of physical abuse, 39 involved rape and one was a sodomy case.
The victims were 148 adults, children aged nine and below (18), children aged 10 to 17 (47) and youths aged 18 to 19 (20).
Most of the abusers were spouses (74 cases), boyfriends or girlfriends (30), parents (20) and brothers (16).
A total of 150 cases occurred at home, 15 at the workplace, six in school and 20 in other areas.