ABSTRACT
The Anglican Sisters of the Church of Melanesia founded and run the first shelter for abused women and children in the Solomon Islands, ameliorating the impact that urbanization has had on family relations. The Sisters offer a caring holistic response to domestic and sexual violence with what they described as ‘culture-based counselling’ within a Christian family setting. The Sisters’ counselling method takes into consideration culture [kastom], new understandings of intimate violence, the law, women’s rights, reconciliation processes, prayer, and the restoration of social relations. The survivors of domestic and sexual violence remain relational human beings, existing within a network of social relations, in the taking of individual women’s rights. Women deal with their problems with personal autonomy and according to their multi-layered normative regimes and rights. The Sisters’ objective helping position ensures that women’s voices are heard and their choices respected when dealing with their family problems.
