TWO-thirds of women in this country have experienced violence in some form, says the head of the Catholic Church of Fiji, Archbishop Peter Loy Chong.
And as a result, he said, the expectation was that a lot of children would be exposed to violent and disturbing situations.
The church will roll out counselling training in its schools and communities beginning next month, he said.
Archbishop Loy Chong said the initiative was responding to the issues of domestic violence, bullying and the offshoots of COVID-19.
“This is the question that I have put to the leaders that we hope to address next week, how do you as a teacher frame yourself when you face these children?
“For that, you need counselling skills.
“We hope to get one counsellor up to talk to them about counselling skills so that when you see students, you are able to read and know the signs and then be able to listen because listening is a tool here.
“If you see a student who is weak, not listening or being rebellious, that should be a sign.
“So how do you listen beyond what you see? That is the skills that you get in counselling.
“This training is called Clinical Pastoral Education.”
