Talofa lava, Malo e lelei, Kia Orana!
At Poutu Pasifika we are steadily progressing through our development phase. Our March Board meeting saw us welcome a new Trustee – Tillie Lima – a qualified counsellor who initially specialised in youth and adolescent counselling, now works with clients of all ages, addressing complex and intergenerational trauma. This brings our Board member count to five, and we are still looking for another two.
To grow the visibility of Poutu Pasifika, our Poutu fale hosted Hon Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children and for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence. It was a wonderful opportunity for the Minister to hear directly from Sylvia about the work and the need of our service for our communities. And Sylvia’s run of ministerial meetings has continued with Hon Carmel Sepuloni, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, with representatives from Te Puna Aonui, Ministry of Social Development, and there’s more to come with Helen White, Spokesperson for Family and Sexual Violence and MP for Mt Albert and the Ministry of Health and Finance.
This March, we also welcomed two new lovely students, Jessie Brown (social work) and Inez Tuafa (counselling), who will journey alongside our team. Jessie will be with us till the end of June, and Inez, to the end of the year. We look forward to introducing them to you in person over the following months.
It is timely that our students have come on board as the work is continually increasing with regular new referrals, which means that our team are now triaging and having to either put clients on a waiting list or refer them elsewhere. Grateful thanks to our Poutu team for their open hearts and dedication to this work, and we send our best wishes to everyone at HELP for the work you are all holding as well!
Alofa atu!