BETIKAMA COUNSELLING CENTRE MAKING PROGRESS

The Betikama Adventist College (BAC) Counselling Centre has significantly impacted the lives of many students who have sought academic and social guidance from its services.

This project aims to address the root causes of the negative social behaviour and poor performance of the youths/students, particularly the most vulnerable at Betikama Adventist College.

Harmful practices such as physical, emotional, sexual abuse at home and outside of their home had significant impact to these students.

The most critical factor to the poor performance of the students are weak support and poor food intake which also affect their physical health.

The project intends to provide wellness services such as behavioural and academic counselling, life skills trainings, physical education to ensure that the students receives holistic support for their wellness.

The project will ensure that appropriate policies, theologies and procedures are in place to protect the children.

A referral network will be established to ensure that the cases which could not be addressed within the project can be referred to other service providers.

Another outcome of this project is to ensure access to right food variety to improve the health and wellbeing of the students particularly the most vulnerable.

Gibson Apusae, ADRA Project Officer for the Betikama Student Well-Being Project, highlighted the significant impact of the counseling center since its inception two years ago.

He said the positive transformation witnessed in the lives of numerous students who have availed themselves of the center’s services since his tenure began in February.

The Betikama Student Well Being Project was funded by ADRA Australia, the project has already made several achievements in assisting students through counseling.

Mr. Apusae added that the need to expand the concept of counseling centers to other schools across the country would be a great benefit not only for students but also for teachers and young people within school communities.

He said the importance of having qualified counselors to manage such centers is an urgent need and he further revealed that the current school administration’s efforts to recruit qualified personnel for the role is in the process.

The official opening of the counseling center on August 31, 2022, was dedicated to the memory of Pastor Lyndon and Mrs. Grace Thrift, with Pr Thrift being Betikama’s founding principal since 1947.

Their generous contributions, alongside support from ADRA Australia and ADRA Solomon Islands, facilitated the renovation and equipping of the center, along with other enhancements to Betikama School farms.

Mr. Apusae also confirmed that work on irrigation at the school farm is progressing well and should be operational by next month, April.

“As part of this project, we’re installing two rota water tanks for farm irrigation,” Mr. Apusae explained.

 “What remains at the moment are a few minor works before the irrigation system is fully functional. We’ve already laid the pipes at the farm, and by next month, it should be operational.”

He elaborated that this project, under the umbrella of student well-being, aims to increase food availability at the dining hall, ensuring students have access to nutritious meals.

“The goal of this component 2 project is to enhance access to a variety of foods, thereby improving classroom performance through heightened awareness among teachers regarding nutritional value, food consumption, and personal hygiene for students,” he said.

“We’re working to increase the food supply at the dining hall as part of this project. Only a few more tasks remain before we complete the irrigation process to farm  and ensure a steady food supply for students, addressing their overall well-being,” Mr. Apusae said.

Meanwhile the aim of the project was to improve the wellbeing of the students at Betikama Adventist College community which builds resilient and contributing members of the society.

Goal of the project was.

• Students, particularly the most vulnerable, have improved academic performance, activity engagements and holds responsibilities which enhance self-esteem and address harmful practices (such as Gender based Violence, abuse and neglect)

• Parents, school admin, and church leadership have increased accountability, participation and enhanced collaboration for student wellbeing through awareness raising events and activities addressing harmful practices that affects student behaviour and school performance.

• Students have increased access to food variety to increase class performance through improved knowledge of teachers on nutritional value, food intake and personal hygiene.

• -press release