Certificate for working with Pacific communities
massey-university
Fri Sep 25 2009 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
Certificate for working with Pacific communities
Friday, 25 September 2009, 10:59 am
Press Release: Massey University
Friday, September 25, 2009
New certificate a must for people working with Pacific communities
A new Certificate in Pacific Development offered for the first time next year aims to help students and workers from a range of professions to better understand Pacific cultures.
“This Certificate could be useful for a whole range of community workers and students,” says coordinator and assistant lecturer from the School of Health and Social Services Ms Litea Meo-Sewabu.
“Not only those who are working in the helping professions, like social work, community work, health, rehabilitation, psychology, and development studies, but also for students across the university. This will help them understand Pasifika worldviews, protocols and practices and how they might be able to work more effectively alongside these communities.”
She says that it is often assumed that Pacific Peoples are all the same when in fact they are not.
“While Tongans, Samoans, Cook Islanders, Tokelauans and Niueans share some underlying values – such as humility, respect and love – they each have unique histories and social and cultural practices.”
The certificate brings together existing papers on culture, development and language from the School of Health and Social Services, the School of People, Planning and Environment and the School of Social and Cultural Studies – all from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. A core requirement is a new paper titled Pacific Peoples in New Zealand. It offers a foundation to understanding worldviews of the range of Pacific cultures in a New Zealand context. Another Pacific-themed paper is The Wellbeing of Pacific Peoples in New Zealand, which focuses on pathways to health Pacific communities in New Zealand.
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“We will be looking at situations that community and health workers face every day,” says Ms Meo-Sewabu. “It is important to build relationships and trust with Pacific Peoples and communities.”
The Certificate was the idea of the Pacific Development Group based in the School of Health and Social Services on the Manawatu campus. It is supported by acting director Pasifika Sione Tu’itahi as a part of the Pasifika@massey strategy, and by a range of health, education and community organisations.
Initially the new paper will be offered extramurally from the Manawatu campus, but it is hoped that the Certificate will be extended to being offered across all campuses both internally and extramurally.
ENDS
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