07/10/2011 10:08
The Ministry of Education, Women’s Affairs and Culture (MEWAC) has officially approved WCCC awareness programs to be carried out to all Government schools in the country. This is a major milestone and a step forward for the work of the WCCC who only just established themselves in November 2009.
“Building our credibility to prove that we could carry out the awareness programs professionally and efficiently has been the core goal of the Community Education team of the WCCC for the past two years,” says Community Education Trainer Team Leader, Lesila To’ia.
There are 52 government primary in Tongatapu and 13 government secondary schools in Tonga. To’ia will be spending the latter part of 2011 planning and dialoguing with the Principals of these schools to develop a cohesive timetable for the WCCC programs to reach the classrooms. There are two main programs that the WCCC has developed for the schools and are appropriate for their intended levels. The Primary School program is called Stay Safe and it teaches children at the primary school level about their personal security and safety. The program developed for the Secondary School level Mo’ui Ke Fiefia is a program based on information dissemination on the cores issues that the WCCC address mainly violence against women and girls, domestic violence and sexual abuse. These programs are delivered separately to both genders because of our culture of faka’apa’apa between brother and sister, and we do take this into account when we address our audiences. Our main goal is to get the information out there in order to empower the young and older children – giving them critical information that may one day save their lives or the lives of their friends and family members,” says To’ia.
The WCCC Stay Safe Program and the Mo’ui Ke Fiefia Program will first be rolled out on the main island of Tongatapu with a pilot program to be tested out with a couple of primary and secondary schools. Thereafter, it is envisaged that both programs will be rolled out throughout the outer islands and will be sustained for a five year period and evaluated thereafter.
WCCC acknowledges this tremendous support made by the MEWAC as ongoing cooperation is needed from all sectors of the community in trying to address these issues since women and children are cornerstone of our society.
For more information on how your school can get involved, please contact Lesila To’ia on 22240.
