Kickstarter campaign shows survival of women facing violence in Papua New Guinea | WNN – Women News Network
(WNN) Brooklyn, New York, UNITED STATES, AMERICAS: A new Kickstarter book publishing campaign
by Fotoevidence, uses photography to draw attention to human rights
violations, injustice, oppression and assaults on sovereignty or human
dignity wherever they may occur. The campaign also highlights
the courage and fortitude of 34-year-old Papuan native Helen Alphons who
walks with a rudimentary crutch near her home.
Helen lost her leg in 2005 in a fight with her drunk husband, Alai
Kawa in an act of severe domestic violence. During an argument that
became critically violent, Alai chopped out Helen’s right leg with a
bushknife in front of their young children, who later called for help.
Alai Kawa was arrested by police, but Helen left her home with her
children after she received medical treatment with the fear that her
husband might be released.
She came back home only in 2010 when she found out that Alai died in
prison. Nowadays she lives together with Alai’s sister and they both run
a small shop in Kundiawa town, Simbu Province.
Papua
New Guinea native Helen, a strong survivor of extreme domestic
violence, works the soil with a shovel outside her home where she lives
with her sister and her children. Image: Vlad Sokhin
