The Pacific Girl Inception Workshop was held from 21–25 October 2019 in Suva, Fiji. The week-long workshop comprised the following meetings:
- One-day Girls Pawa Toktok with adolescent girls from Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Vanuatu.
- Two-day Partners Meeting with selected civil society organisation partners from Fiji, Federated States of Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu.
- The Pacific Girl Regional Learning Network meeting.
This document provides details about the Australian Government’s investment in supporting adolescent girls in the Pacific. It includes information about:
‘Attending trainings, I know that my actions speak louder. I am standing here as a deaf person to show you that having many skills has changed my life and I can contribute to my family’s income,’ shares Clera Tegu.
As part of commemorations for International Day of Persons with Disabilities, Pacific Women through Pacific Girl is proud to present this video featuring Ms Tegu. She is one of the many girls in the Solomon Islands who are being supported to develop their confidence, skills and knowledge through the Young Women’s Christian Association’s (YWCA) Girls Rise Up! program.
Yoshiko Capelle from the Pacific Young Women's Leadership Alliance was one of three special guests who provided pre-recorded messages for the ‘Pacific girls and COVID-19’ webinar.
The webinar promoted girls’ involvement as essential in the recovery from the COVID-19 outbreak.
Fijian activist Virisila Buadromo was one of three special guests who provided pre-recorded messages for the ‘Pacific girls and COVID-19’ webinar.
The webinar promoted girls’ involvement as essential in the recovery from the COVID-19 outbreak.
Roselyn Sidal, Julie-Ann Guivarra and Jacqui Joseph in conversation with Tara Chetty about the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on adolescent girls in the Pacific region. The webinar also included video messages from Natasha Stott-Despoja, Virisila Buadromo, and Yoshiko Capelle plus performance from two young women: Anna Vea and Mia Kami.
This video features girls from Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu highlighting the issues experienced by girls before and after the global pandemic.
Girls also share what they want changed to address the issues faced by themselves and their peers particularly during the COVID-19 response and recovery period.
Pamela, 13, is a dynamic adolescent, head girl and an active participant in one of Equal Playing Field school action groups in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea’s capital.
She was in Fiji; caught in transit between Papua New Guinea and Samoa due to changes in her connecting flight on her way to attend “A dive into the Blue Pacific” side event at the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) earlier this month.
Pacific Island adolescent girls participating in the two-day preparatory workshop ahead of the Pacific Girl Regional Stakeholders’ Dialogue in May 2018 wrote a song together to express their feelings and experiences. It highlights challenges for Pacific girls, including teen pregnancy and cyberbullying, and encourages girls to believe in themselves to overcome any barriers.
Adolescent girls in the Pacific face challenges because they are girls; and they can also be discriminated against for other reasons, such as having a disability or getting pregnant. In this short video, adolescent girls from the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu talk about the issues that are important to them – such as education and climate change, the challenges they face – such as violence in their homes and cyber bullying, and the strategies they believe will work to empower adolescent girls in the region.
Girls Rise Up! aims to develop the confidence, skills and knowledge of at-risk girls in Solomon Islands and to help them establish supportive peer networks and the opportunity to safely advocate for issues that affect them. By expanding from Honiara to rural provinces, the project aims to support rural adolescent girls who face safeguarding risks related to logging and mining operations. The project is led by YWCA in partnership with CARE International and supported by the Australian Government through the Pacific Girl program, managed by Pacific Women.
Clera Tegu, a 17 year-old deaf girl from Makira Ulawa Province in Solomon Islands, is one of over 200 young girls involved in the Girls Rise Up! The project aims to develop the confidence, skills and knowledge of at-risk girls while helping them establish supportive peer networks and the opportunity to safely advocate for issues that affect them. Through the project’s life skills program, Clera has learned several income generating skills including paper bead and jewellery making, and lavalava dying, which enables her to earn money and contribute to her family and church.
The Girls Rise Up! project is based in Honiara and aims to develop the confidence, skills to earn a living and knowledge of over 200 at-risk girls to help them establish supportive peer networks and the opportunity to safely advocate for issues that affect them. Under the project, community women are trained as mentors to work with girls who are most vulnerable, ensuring that they have confidence, awareness of and access to services to make the right life choices.
Seventeen-year-old Anamalia Falemaka of Talitha Project in Tonga participated in the UNCRC side event in Samoa in March 2020 titled ‘A dive into the Blue Pacific’. Girls like Anamalia used the forum to share their experiences, lessons learned and innovative approaches at the international event. It was a learning opportunity for participants to exchange information, knowledge and challenges faced in the Pacific region. The side-event involved grassroots civil society organisations in the Pacific which engage with girls and acknowledge their role, agency and expertise.
The Pacific Girl webinar on adolescent girls and COVID-19, coincided with the International Day of the Girl Child on October 11. It explored the impacts of the pandemic on adolescent girls in the region and the importance of listening to girls and young women in order to develop effective COVID-19 responses. The webinar amplified the concerns of young women and girls, and those working to support them, while discussing ways to support girls’ increased involvement in response and recovery.
The Pacific Girl regional discussion: Girls Agency and the Pacific Girl Journey was held in June 2021. Adolescent girls and young women involved in the six initiatives supported by the Pacific Girl program across six Pacific Island countries participated in the online panel discussion, along with members of the Regional Learning Network coordinated by the Pacific Girl program. The convening was an opportunity to reflect with adolescent girls who had been participating in Pacific Girl programming at national and regional level.
More than 60 adolescent girls and young women reflected on the successes and challenges of the Pacific Girl program and shared ideas to inform future efforts at a series of virtual convenings held in May and June 2021. To ensure a safe space for open and honest dialogue, a closed panel discussion was led by adolescent girls and young women involved in six Pacific Girl initiatives across Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Vanuatu, and Chuuk State, Federated States of Micronesia in June.
Natasha Stott Despoja AO, Australia’s candidate for the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) was one of three special guests who provided pre-recorded messages for the ‘Pacific girls and COVID-19’ webinar.
The webinar promoted girls’ involvement as essential in the recovery from the COVID-19 outbreak.
This is a pre-recorded poetry performance by Anna Jane Vea for the ‘Pacific girls and COVID-19’ webinar.
The webinar promoted girls’ involvement as essential in the recovery from the COVID-19 outbreak.
The poem ‘What I See, Hear and Understand’ was written for the Pacific Girl webinar and shares the perspective of an adolescent girl growing up in the Pacific.
This is a pre-recorded musical performance by Mia Kami for the ‘Pacific girls and COVID-19’ webinar. The song was performed live.
The webinar promoted girls’ involvement as essential in the recovery from the COVID-19 outbreak.
The song ‘Dear Society’ is for Ms Kami’s sister, reflecting on the damaging expectations that society has of women, and why it’s important for us to support each other. It was composed in honour of her older sister who passed on at the age of 15 after undergoing multiple surgeries on her face to remove a tumour.