Government Support for Shelters for Women Victims of Domestic Violence

Mdm Speaker, MSF funds four shelters run by voluntary welfare organisations for women who have been abused domestically. They provide temporary accommodation and assistance, such as counselling to the women and their children. The funding covers the capital development of the shelters as well as part of the operating costs.

Tackling domestic abuse requires strong partnership among the Government and community partners. For this reason, MSF works with non-

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government organisations in public education initiatives, such as community road shows, radio and TV programmes, to promote awareness on family violence. The Ministry also works through the multi-agency National Family Violence Networking System to allow victims to approach community facilities, such as shelters and family service centres or the Police and other Government agencies for assistance.

However, some domestic abuse victims may be reluctant to seek help. Members of the community can play their part by reporting abuse immediately and seeking help for affected individuals and families.

I thank the Minister for his response. One of the shelters called DaySpring is within Holland-Bukit Timah GRC Constituency and it fulfils the task of putting abused women and children back into school or at work, and I have visited them. Arising from the response and my visit, I would like to ask a supplementary question whether the Government or, in particular, MSF, would provide more space in terms of the shelter accommodation. Secondly, whether they would be able to work with support networks to facilitate the reintegration of the abused women and children either in school or at work. And, thirdly, whether more could be done to partner between the Government and charities or the private sector to provide the support that these children and women need.

Mdm Speaker, I thank Mr Christopher de Souza for the questions. Let me answer them in reverse order. The answer to the third question is yes, certainly, we would like to partner more VWOs and community organisations to help the families in need to reintegrate with the community. On the second question, again, the answer is yes, we would like to provide the support networks necessary which brings us to the first question. We will definitely allocate sufficient space for the families who require it but we also seek the community's support to integrate them back into the community.

Thank you, Mdm Speaker. I would like to ask the Acting Minister for a quick clarification. My understanding is that many of these crisis shelters do allow the children of abused women to be housed with them, with the exception of older boys within the family. I am wondering if this is something that the Ministry is looking at addressing and whether there is a downstream impact on the family unit if these older boys within the family are not allowed to be housed together with their mothers.

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Mdm Speaker, I thank Mr Alex Yam for the question and comment. Yes, indeed, there is an existing rule that, as far as possible, we try to house the mothers together with their children. Currently, older boys and those found to be not suitable to be housed in the same shelter would be assisted to find alternative arrangements. But we do make arrangements for them to make sure that the families spend time together to rebuild their lives as much as possible.

In relation to my supplementary question on space, I am given to understand that there are some shelters, certainly one shelter in particular, which are being given concessionary rates for rent from the Singapore Land Authority (SLA). But with many of these territories belonging to SLA, the leases are coming to an end and the territory is being used for some other development. So, my question or my request, on behalf of these organisations, is whether MSF could facilitate an appropriate re-housing of these shelters so that the charities' work can continue notwithstanding a short lease.

Mdm Speaker, the answer to the question is yes, certainly, because the services that we provide for many of these vulnerable families, indeed, need to be on a sustained basis. So, we certainly will need to relocate them and help them to continue to provide the services to the families in need, for whatever reasons that SLA or URA requires to repossess the land.