Vanuatu Cricket has started their Social Impact and Inclusion Program which aims to promote gender equality, combat NCD’s and promote inclusion in communities and in sport through cricket. The program is funded by the Australian Government through the Team Up program which was launched in Vanuatu on the 4th of March.
The main focus of the Social Impact and Inclusion program is to combat violence against women and girls through cricket and carries the slogan, ‘appeal against violence’. The program runs alongside the VCA’s longtime women’s island cricket program combatting NCDs and will see the revival of the disability inclusion program Cricket I Blong Evriwan program.
The program started with a gender foundation training with World Vision Vanuatu who are the VCA’s partners for the program on February 15th. The training was facilitated by World Vision for Eight (8) of the VCA’s Social Impact and Inclusion Ambassadors who will be the VCA’s faces and voices in schools and communities.
The aim of the training was to provide an insight into what gender base violence is, train the staff on how to run programs that will capture people’s attention and deliver the right messages, learn, and understand different types of violence, how to be in a circle of influence-to-influence positive change and provide the opportunity for self-reflection for the staff.
The gender foundation training was a success because it allowed the social impact and inclusion team to establish guiding principles for their programs and it provided a safe environment where the team engaged in open conversation and discussions surrounding gender-based violence and how Vanuatu Cricket can use their platform to address and combat the issues.
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