Vanuatu woman internationally recognised for solar scheme tackling violence

Detailed summary

Women in a village on Vanuatu's Tanna island are working to reduce their risk of being attacked by switching from candles to solar lights.

Women in a Vanuatu village are working to reduce the risk of male violence by installing solar lights.

The project has also increased household incomes, with women now able to work more.

The project will be recognised at the COP-31 summit and the community wants to expand its work with Australia's help.

When the sun sets on Tanna in Vanuatu, some women lock themselves in their homes for the night with a machete under their pillow for protection, according to a local NGO.

In the village of Lawital, Dalila Laus Lalulu describes a similar sense of fear.

There are no lights in many of the traditional villages on the island and men often attack women after dark, she says.

"It's not safe to walk around at night for girls," Ms Lalulu told the ABC in Bislama.

Vanuatu has one of the world's highest rates of intimate partner violence, according to Vanuatu Women's Centre, although the figure has fallen over the past 15 years.

The latest national survey on Women's Lives and Family Relationships found half of the respondents who had been in a relationship had experienced physical or sexual violence, or both, from their partner during their lifetime.

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