Develop international links to stay relevant, says Fatimah

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Fatimah at an exhibition booth, accompanied by the Ministry of Health’s deputy director-general Datuk Dr Lokman Hakim Sulaiman. — Muhammad Rais Sanusi

Fatimah at an exhibition booth, accompanied by the Ministry of Health’s deputy director-general Datuk Dr Lokman Hakim Sulaiman. — Muhammad Rais Sanusi

KUCHING: International bodies should be encouraged to join the existing partnership between the Ministry of Welfare, Women and Community Wellbeing and state Health Department for mutual benefits.

Its minister Datuk Fatimah Abdullah said this was because the world was now a global village.

She said with international networking, health professionals would be able to share knowledge and skills on wide ranging issues.

“We have to work with one another, country to country, and government to government,” she said when officiating at the 21st Joint Malaysia Singapore Nursing Conference 2016 at Borneo Convention Centre Kuching yesterday.

Fatimah was representing Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem at the event.

She urged health professionals to be fully aware of the social issues besieging the State, like teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease and domestic violence.

“We need to work together to address these problems.”

In the first seven months of this year, the State recorded 223 domestic violence cases, an increase of 79 cases from a year ago.

These cases were not confined to housewives alone. Well-educated professional women were also abused, she said.

She urged all victims of domestic violence to lodge reports against the perpetrators as there were laws and support services to protect them.

“We must recognise that this is a social ill. If the violence is not reported, nothing can be done, and the perpetrator will continue to abuse women and their children.”

Fatimah said last year, cases of domestic violence occurred mostly in the rural areas, but the trend shifted to the urban centres this year. One of the reasons women refused to report abuses at home was because of the fear that their husbands (the perpetrators) would divorce them.