Safeguarding Pacific youth focus of new study

Dr Analosa Veukiso-Ulugia has been awarded the Health Research Council of New Zealand Sir Thomas Davis Te Patu Kite Rangi Ariki Health Research Fellowship. 

A senior lecturer and Health Research Council postdoctoral research fellow, she says the project will focus on safeguarding Pacific children and youth through community education and big data. The award is worth up to $600k over four years and will get underway late next year in two stages. 

Empowering Villages to Safeguard Pacific Children, will tackle some of the more serious and topical issues around child and youth sexual abuse in Pacific communities. 

“There is a lot of data collected on our families, but is that information accessible? We want to carefully see what is and isn’t there, as it will give us a picture that is more accurate and may signal what we do need," says Dr Veukiso-Ulugia.

The project will also develop a ‘train the trainer’ programme for community-based sexuality education, to empower parents, educators and community leaders to drive prevention and awareness. 

“This new project is close to my heart – it’s focused on safeguarding our Pacific children." 

“We want to identify strategies that are culturally relevant, based on the data and insights from our Pacific communities to prevent abuse.”  

Veukiso-Ulugia’s team of experts will include Professor Terryann Clark (School of Nursing), Professor Katie Fitzpatrick (School of Curriculum and Pedagogy) and Dr Jesse Kokaua from the University of Otago. 

“We’re taking the Pacific sexuality education resources we’ve developed, and making it accessible for our teachers and our parents, because our parents are our first teachers. Parents want to be involved.   

“Sex education is still considered taboo in many families, but it’s about well-being, and how do we support our parents to be able to teach our kids?” 

As a mother of four, Veukiso-Ulugia says the role of parents as first teachers is incredibly important, and home can be a powerful and safe place to have these conversations. 

“Teachers are working hard to support our children, however, are hesitant in teaching material that may get shut down at home by parents. We want to empower parents in this journey, where they and their kids are learning at the same time.” 

Talanoa workshops will help utilise existing material and explore how to share the available resources in the community and equip teachers and parents to help safeguard their children. 

“There are all these resources that end up sitting on a shelf. We need to make this practical and will provide talanoa workshops that takes parents and teachers step by step through the journey in teaching children about their sexuality.”