Just Play back

The curtain will be drawn on the first Village Festival of the 2016 Just Play Programme on Tuesday next week at Victoria Park in Tupapa. Project manager Michelle Paiti met with partners and schools involved with the programme on Tuesday to confirm its calendar to get everyone up to par with events planned for the year. With schools resuming this week, Paiti is excited to launch the sport for development programme again for its sixth year running. The first Village Festival set for next week will touch on key messages surrounding gender, teaching children from ages 5-13 years about respecting one another, reiterating that violence is not okay, and the importance of equality on-and-off field. These active learning sessions will be delivered by the gender division of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in between fun sporting activities set out for children. “Through the integration of social messages, children also learn to develop healthy lifestyle habits and promote social inclusion and gender equality,” says Paiti. Just Play Cook Islands has seen tremendous success since it’s an inception in 2011. Now well into 18 schools and 12 community groups across four islands, the incentive has a reach of over 1878 children participating in the sport for development programme and a total of 120 trained facilitators. Paiti hopes to further expand the reach of her project to other outer islands including Mauke and Mitiaro. She also hopes to increase the participation of younger children in the 5-8 year-old bracket over the course of this year. All children ages 5-13 years from the village of Tupapa and anyone else who is interested are invited to join in the festival next Tuesday at the Victoria Park from 2.30pm. The session will run for an hour and parents are most welcome to join in the fun. - Just Play

The curtain will be drawn on the first Village Festival of the 2016 Just Play Programme on Tuesday next week at Victoria Park in Tupapa. Project manager Michelle Paiti met with partners and schools involved with the programme on Tuesday to confirm its calendar to get everyone up to par with events planned for the year. With schools resuming this week, Paiti is excited to launch the sport for development programme again for its sixth year running. The first Village Festival set for next week will touch on key messages surrounding gender, teaching children from ages 5-13 years about respecting one another, reiterating that violence is not okay, and the importance of equality on-and-off field. These active learning sessions will be delivered by the gender division of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in between fun sporting activities set out for children. “Through the integration of social messages, children also learn to develop healthy lifestyle habits and promote social inclusion and gender equality,” says Paiti. Just Play Cook Islands has seen tremendous success since it’s an inception in 2011. Now well into 18 schools and 12 community groups across four islands, the incentive has a reach of over 1878 children participating in the sport for development programme and a total of 120 trained facilitators. Paiti hopes to further expand the reach of her project to other outer islands including Mauke and Mitiaro. She also hopes to increase the participation of younger children in the 5-8 year-old bracket over the course of this year. All children ages 5-13 years from the village of Tupapa and anyone else who is interested are invited to join in the festival next Tuesday at the Victoria Park from 2.30pm. The session will run for an hour and parents are most welcome to join in the fun. - Just Play