What Works In Dementia Education And Management? – Problem Of Aboriginal Women In Torres Strait Island, Australia

Urban Aboriginal Community Kitchen Garden

Problem Statement

In recent decades, one of the most important problems for women is the violence. In a country like Australia, the aboriginal women are the victims of the violence and sexual abuse. In a remote part of the country, the aboriginal women are constantly suffering from the violence against them. In daily life the aboriginal women are experiencing the lack of education, lack of nutrition, sexual abuse, and the important part of that is the gender discrimination (Arjunan et al., 2015). In spite of having such discrimination and the violence, the aboriginal women are not willing to release their mental state in front of the world. Apart from that, the aboriginal women of Australia in the Torres Strait Island have been suffering from a different kind of health problems such as the sleep disorder, pregnancy at the immature age, emotional peril, and the suicide. But they are constantly struggling to escape from this problem. They are little successful in managing themselves from the victimization of the extreme violence (Devries and Free, 2010).

The main problem of the aboriginal women is the gender discrimination and the sexual abuse. Since the ancient period of time, they are experiencing the sexual abuse. This is the time to eradicate the problem as early as possible. The aboriginal women should to step out with the problem and solve it as much possible as they can (Fredericks, 2010).

This problem of the aboriginal women is not the recent case. It has been happening since the long period of time.  Excepting the case of aboriginal women in the Torres Strait Island, it is quite common in every country of the world. This situation of the women is quite surprising and astonishing. In the 21^st century, if such cases happen then this is shameful for the human being.

As mentioned earlier, that the aboriginal women of the Torres Strait islandhave been suffering from the ancient period of time. But in the comparison between the common women and the aboriginal, then it is undoubtedly to say that the aboriginal women are suffering from violence frequently than the normal women in Torres Strait Island. In, Torres Strait Island every year, it is reported that the 15% of the incident of the violence case against women (Genat et al., 2016). But the most important thing is that the normal women are not willing to raise their voice against such sexual abuse. Apart from that, the aboriginal women in the Torres Strait Island are continuously backing themselves from not raising the issue in front of the world. It is seen that most of the cases occur between the age of 15 and 40. They do not report the case against the exploiter due to having lack of knowledge, lack of education and lack of courage. The frequent cases against the aboriginal women push them in front of the disaster in their life (Green and Blinkhorn, 2010). They become traumatized due to the repeated violence against them.

SMART goals of the project

There are hell and heaven differences between the urban area and the rural or the remote area. In urban or the core area of the city, the women are more educated and well aware of the fact. They have exact knowledge about the violence and the consequences of it. But on the other hand the aboriginal women of the Torres Strait islandAustralia, they are far behind the women of the urban area. The women of the city area are well aware of the health consequences due to the sexual abuse (Kerpan, Humbert and Henry, 2014). The modern women are well aware of the human rights. But comparing them to the aboriginal women, the aboriginal women have no exact idea of the human rights, they are lacking the proper education, above all they have no idea of the health consequences due to the sexual abuse. Due to the problem, most of the women experiencing the disease like HIV and AIDS. The aboriginal women are suffering from the forced rape. As mentioned earlier that the aboriginal women have lack of knowledge of the health consequences so unfortunately, they are facing some serious health issues in their life. Sometimes they become traumatized due to the violence (Lukaszyk et al., 2017).

One of the most important reasons behind the sexual violence against the women is the power. In most of the country, the men community enjoys the extreme power. Sometimes, this extreme power forces the men community to do the extreme crime such as the rape, murder and so on. The most important thing is that the most of the communities have a lack of knowledge about the sexual abuse and its consequences. The most of the women in the community are not well aware of the negative impact of the sexual violence (McDonald et al., 2010). One of the most important parameters of the society is the language, beliefs, and culture. The differences between the languages, culture are often liable for this type of cases. According to the survey of Australian Statistics, one in every six women experiences the sexual violence. The number is increasing day by day. The figure is increasing approximately by 1.2 % every year. On the other hand, it is seen that the 80% victims of the aboriginal women are experiencing the consequences of AIDS (Mundel and Chapman, 2010). The figure is increasing day by day at Torres Strait Island in Australia. According to the other parameter of the society is the economic and political factor. It sometimes influences the violence against the women.

Background and significance of the problem

There is a huge impact on the aboriginal women of the Torres Strait Island in Australia.As mentioned earlier that the aboriginal women are suffering from the mental disorder and the sleep disorder. The women constantly suffering from the diseases like HIV and the AIDS. There are the losses of the aboriginal women due to different unknown disease caused by the sexual violence (Schoen, Balchin and Thompson, 2010). As most of the communities have a male in the topmost positions, so the violence against women increasing day by day in Torres Strait island in Australia. The aboriginal women lacking the proper education so they cannot understand the exact steps to curb and solve the problem. If the aboriginal women of the country do not take the proper action against the exploiter then it is sure that the violence would increase leap and bounds against them (Sun and Buys, 2015). Apart from that, the city women need to take the further action and brings the best possible solution to curb the exploitation against the women. But on the other hand, the educated men community needs to take another action to improve the condition of the women.  

The problem of the women as mentioned earlier that the continuous violence. The repeated violence forces the aboriginal women to take the extreme decision. They often choose to do suicide. They face the most extreme situation in their life. Due to the exploitation of aboriginal women, and the sexual violence, they suffer from AIDS and the HIV. They need proper guidance to live happily on the island. As mentioned earlier that the aboriginal women have lack of education and they do not know the exact consequences of the sexual violence (Wilkins et al., 2015). As far as the sexual case is involved, they need the proper infrastructure to solve their problem. They are traumatized due to the excessive violence against them. Some NGO needs to take the problem seriously as this is the problem of the nation. Apart from the NGO, the government needs to take action against the sexual exploiter. They need to take proper decision on the matter of the sexual abuse against the aboriginal women. Some international organizations need to extend their helping hand to solve the matter as early as possible. The aboriginal women are suffering from the mental disorder due to the sexual abuse. This sometimes forces them to take the extreme decisions (Arabena, Rowley and MacLean, 2014). This condition of the women needs to solve as soon possible by the government

Local needs assessment data

The entire discussion emphasizes the case of the aboriginal women of the Torres Strait Island of Australia. Their mental condition has been portrayed beautifully to bring the others attention to the fact. Their condition is so pathetic that it cannot be thinkable in the 21^st century. The extreme power of the men has forced the aboriginal women to take the extreme decision. The men communities are continuously exploiting the women. Sometimes they do forced rape. The above-mentioned discussion portrays the exact reason behind the sexual abuse against the aboriginal women. The discussion also urges the some NGO and the respective government to take the proper action against this serious issue (Bailie et al., 2010). The discussion also displays the negativity of the society which somehow liable for this extreme case against women. Apart from that, the women do not have the proper amenities such as the education, knowledge of the consequences of the unknown disease and so on. The above-mentioned discussion displays the ideal feature of the men community in the society.

The project consists of the following parameters which are very important for the overall awareness of the aboriginal male and female community in Torres Strait Island so that sexual abuse and women violence can be restricted.

Individual risk Reduction: To protect the aboriginal women of the Torres Strait Island from the sexual violence and to establish gender equality through monitoring, awareness and advocacy programme. The philosophy of the programme must be positivist. The worker working in the programmed should have a very positive state of mind. They should be very proactive in making and implementing the action plan (Campbell et al., 2018). In the Individual risk assessment Health check is an important parameter to find the intensity of the sexual abuse that has occurred in the aboriginal women population. The program includes a medical camp where the aboriginal women of all ages in the Torres Strait Island will have the facility to do a holistic checkup.  

The health check-up will not only include physical health it will include the mental health of the women. After the checkup families with the most sexual violence should be marked. Special focus should be given to those families which have high sexual violence. Proper discussion and awareness should be done to aware the males about the consequences of the sexual abuse (Colles, Maypilama and Brimblecombe, 2014). The female of those households should be sensitized at the individual level so they can protect themselves or will be able to take necessary steps during the case of sexual abuse.

Project summary

Awareness and education in Individual level: The Awareness must be in the individual level. The main reason for that is the aboriginal community in Torres Strait Island is less educated and less aware of the circumstances of the sexual violence than the urban community. Hence through the program, the aboriginal women and male of the Torres Strait Island at an individual level should be sensitized about the issue so that the problem can be mitigated. This awareness in the personal level can be done through the open-ended discussion, clarification and resolving of the issue (Lee, O’Dea and Mathews, 2010).

Holistic community development: The whole community of the aboriginal people in the Torres Strait Island should be developed and sensitized to the concept of the sexual violence. Community awareness and sensitizing workshop can be done in the community. Focused group discussion about the issue can be done in the community through meetings and gatherings. There should be an open platform for debate in this issue. The primary focus will be sexual violence on women of the Torres Strait island community. Young to middle-aged women are the main victims of the sexual violence which should be focused. The whole community through proper focused group discussion should be sensitized so they can understand the negative impacts of the sexual violence (Lee, Midford and Malone, 2012). Since the aboriginal community in the Torres Strait Island is not aware of the laws that are prevalent in the country for sexual violence against the women it should be stated in the community through proper meetings.  The organizations which are working for this cause the communication numbers should be provided to the victims in the Torres Strait Island so they can inform the proper authority in case of any sexual violence in the aboriginal community.

 In this part of the project, the overall community development should be taken care of by proper communication. The philosophy which is to be taken here is humanistic philosophy.

Social Advocacy: Social Advocacy is one of the most important parameters which should be covered in the program it will help the community to be sensitized and organized in this issue. In the program, the target is to sensitize the population to such level that after the project they can mitigate any issue of sexual violence on the island by themselves. Advocacy in some community resource person will be developed who will take the charge of the situation after the end of the project (McDonald, Cunningham and Slavin, 2015).

The population of the Torres Strait Island is 3000 approximately. The programs will run for two years and will try to reach the individual level. The main target population is the young to mid-aged women population of the community. The victims of the sexual violence are a large number within this age limit. Majority of the percentage in the Torres Strait Islands are an aboriginal community. There is almost 1000 individual household in the community. The target population lies within this household. This group of the community should be sensitized properly with the help of focus group discussion, medical health camp and awareness workshop on sexual violence (Nichols et al., 2018). Educators are needed to educate the male members of this household should be educated about the gender equality and consequences of the sexual violence. The Awareness camps should be done in the community and in schools will full participation of the community. It should be done in such a way that the sensitization of the target population can be maximized. The free health check-up camp should be done with the help of the local hospitals and the medical authority of the island.

The program will be partnered by the funding agencies and the local authority that is present in the Torres Strait Island. It is absolutely impossible to execute the plan without partnering with the local legal and medical authorities. Generally, any development project makes a liaison with the government authority to assess problems and act according to the need assessment. In this case collaboration with the government, authority is needed to make medical, awareness camp and meetings in the community (Schoen and Thompson, 2015). Through proper channel, funding can also be taken from the Department of Families, Community service and indigenous affairs. A partnership can be done with the nonprofit organization that has the same agenda of sexual violence in aboriginal women.

Other similar services like mitigation of drug use and children abuse programmers are running in the New South Wales. This is also a community development program. The activities of the programme include social advocacy. The target population, in this case, is the adolescent youths who need proper guidance to come into the mainstream of the society. Sensitization workshops and medical workshops are done in school; proper education should be given to the youths for proper direction.

In this kind of development awareness programs, it is sometimes challenging to measure the success of the project. One of the measures of success will be monitoring of the individual households for any case of sexual violence in the aboriginal women in the island. Then the percentage of reports should be compared before and after the program which will help in the calculating the success rate of the project (Sinclair et al., 2015). The previous report as should be done by baseline data of the community which can be done through survey s and collection of data from the authorities in the area.

The sustainability of the project is totally dependent on the designing of the project. It is very important for any developmental project to be sustainable. One of the methods to make this project sustain is to create a community resource person among the aboriginal community in the Torres Strait Island who will work I liaison with the local authority.  For every 100 household one communities, resource people should be made. The capacity of the community resource person should be built by the professionals of the project. This Community resource person will help to sustain the measures of the project (Taylor et al., 2012). The sensitization workshop can be carried on by the resource person who will lead to the sustainability of the project.

The budget for the total project of mitigation of sexual violence in aboriginal women is given

According to my opinion, the situation like the violence and the sexual abuse against the women has shaken the government to take action. This kind of situation in developed countries cannot be expected. When the entire world is urging the empowerment of the women, then the situation is undoubtedly an alarming one. The government needs to take the responsibility of providing the proper education to the aboriginal. They need to create awareness about the gender discrimination. The only proper knowledge and the education give them the extra edge to fight against the exploitation and the sexual abuse (Ziabakhsh, 2016). The proper health assessment plan should be provided so that they may know the exact consequences of the sexual abuse.

References

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