Samoa Victim Support Group has hosted a meeting with the representatives of teaching staff from six selected schools to participate in the Government-funded Eliminating Violence Against Women and Girls Project.

The meeting was held this week at the SVSG main office in Apia with teachers from Channel College, Don Bosco School at Alafua, Tuasivi College and Wesley College attending according to a statement issued by the SVSG on Monday.

The consultation with the remaining schools namely, the Seventh Day Adventist School and the Maluafou College will be held separately.

The gathering this week was an opportunity for the SVSG to brief the school representatives on the activity to be implemented by the male students in the selected schools, says the SVSG statement. The activity involves the school's performing creative arts illustrating the key messages that are focused on six thematic challenges faced by students in schools.

They include inter-school violence; bullying; discrimination and judgemental; reviving the Samoan culture that supports male respect towards the female; encouraging peer support; and online safety and mental health. 

Professional photographers have also been engaged to provide the documentary requirement of the creative performances by the selected schools, the SVSG statement added. 

The objective of engaging boys in the project is to eliminate violence against women and girls to raise awareness while sensitising young boys on the importance of their role in breaking the cycle of violence. 

"As young boys, they can help change the narrative by growing up with the social and emotional competencies necessary for them to become stronger men," the SVSG statement reads.

"The performances by the schools will be filmed for educational and awareness raising purposes, and will be televised on the local television and social media, leading up to the children’s White Sunday in October. 

"The performance is therefore not for entertainment, but as a means of saving lives."

The meeting concluded with teachers representatives selecting their thematic key messages in which their respective schools will base their creative performances on.

The SVSG President Siliniu Lina Chang thanked the Education Board of the private and mission schools who accepted their request to become ambassadors of the project.

“Thank you so much to the Board of Education of the private and mission schools, who have accepted SVSG’s request for their schools to be ambassadors of the project, that seeks to eliminate violence against women and girls, through engaging men and boys in the conversation."