VILLAGE LEADERS TRAINED TO RESPOND APPROPRIATELY TO VIOLENCE
Australia Pacific Training Coalition
Photo: S.V.S.G
Twenty village leaders and Samoa Victim Support Group (SVSG)
representatives from 15 villages are currently undergoing training on
how to recognize and respond appropriately to domestic and family
violence.
Australia Pacific Training Coalition
Photo: S.V.S.G
The 2-weeks training is part of a unit of the Diploma in Counselling,
delivered by the Australia Pacific Training Coalition (APTC), so it can go
towards obtaining the Australian accredited Diploma in Counselling.
The village leaders were selected based on their active participation in
handling matters referred to SVSG through its Helpline services, or
have completed previous capacity building on SVSG’s response services
such as that provided under the Samoa Gender Partnership Program,
an initiative of Tautua – supporting human development for all.
All of the participants have successfully completed the registration
process with APTC for the Counselling Course, which is a combination
of an application form to be completed and a written exam.
The course is entitled “Domestic & Family Violence & Anger
Management”.
Australia Pacific Training Coalition
Photo: S.V.S.G
The aim of the Domestic & Family Violence component is to equip the
village leaders with appropriate skills to counsel those who had
experienced or are experiencing violence in their communities. Anger
Management is a non-accrredited training to assist the village leaders
when working
Through this course, the village reps are furthering their skills and
knowledge on the essentials that a counselor needs to learn such as
knowing the responsibilities and limitations of a counselor, the detrimental effects of violence on our
children, taking confidentiality into consideration when dealing with the victims and the perpetrators, the
importance of an organization having a policy and procedures manual, as well as a code of conduct for
counselors.
The training agenda had really kept the village leaders clued to their course materials over the last couple
of days. Such commitment speaks volume on the relevance of the training to the roles and responsibilities
of the village leaders as SVSG village representatives.
Mrs. Thea Keane, is the APTC Counselling Trainer who is facilitating the training, hosted at the Vodafone
Conference Room at Maluafou.
“This golden opportunity for continuous learning for the SVSG village representatives is made possible
through the partnership between SVSG and the APTC, and we are grateful.” Siliniu Lina Chang, SVSG President.