Callers abuse workers at FSC on emergency toll-free line

By Timothy Inifiri Jr, reporter@sbmonline

Local Non-Government Organization (NGO), Family Support Center (FSC) has called on the public to respect and not abuse its 699 emergency toll-free line.

This comes after the organization reportedly faced a number of prank calls since establishing its free toll line in June 2022.

In an interview with SBMOnline, a representative of FSC said that as service providers, the free toll lines are used especially for women and girls encountering gender based violence to freely access their services.

“We usually receive these (abuse) calls almost everyday since 2022 by people trying to offend our workers. Most of us are women, mothers and we have families so we deserve some sort of respect,” the spokesperson said.

“Such practices are not acceptable even in our customs, religion and our law. These free toll lines are mainly for the public to use but not purposely for abuse or misusing it”, said the FSC rep.

The rep said that some of the offenders call the toll free line and often made abusive and bad comments to the female staff.

“This is also a form of sexual harassment which violates the rights of our women. Some of these women too might be past victims of violence and such calls can really affect them,” she added.

“The space is for people who are abused or victims of violence, however when these victims are in trouble and wanting to reach out to us, these callers often jeopardize their opportunities to talk to us”, said FSC rep.

The FSC also reminded the public to be responsible of their actions and not to exploit their free toll line service

With this, the FSC said that they have made attempts to reach both the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF) and Telekom and are still awaiting for responses from both parties.