Published on Thursday, 17 June 2021 at 1:32:44 PM
Karalundi College and GRAMS Tackling Indigenous Smoking Team partners up to provide smoking education to students
Karalundi College visited GRAMS Tackling Indigenous Smoking (TIS) team last week to participate in a smoking education workshop and learn about the dangers of smoking.
According to the Western Australian Department of Health, 39% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 15 years and over smoked on a daily basis. Cigarette smoking is also the leading cause of death among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
To help prevent the uptake of smoking in young people, the TIS team organised an interactive education workshop to provide information on the harmful effects of smoking and show young people the benefits of staying smoke free.
20 children between year 7 and 10 attended the workshop along with the school principal at Karalundi College, John Corcoran.
Karalundi College is a year 7 to 10 co-educational boarding school for Aboriginal students situated as an ‘oasis in the desert’, in Meekatharra.
Principal John Corcoran said that the school strives to guide their students towards better education focusing on building their success and strength of character.
“Karalundi is a place which promotes the balance development of every student, building a community of faith and instilling in each student values and skills resulting in resilience, good citizenship, personal achievement and a practical concern for others,” said principal Corcoran.
“Unfortunately, the prevalence of smoking for young people is still up there. Getting our youth involved in smoking education programs and improving the understanding of the health impacts of smoking will hopefully lead to reduced tobacco use.”
“We endeavour to bring the best of education to students and part of this is exposing them to different communities and programs to foster independence, resilience and social and emotional wellbeing.”
Karalundi College students participating in the educational smoking workshop
In the pursuit of smoking reduction and prevention, the GRAMS TIS team offers educational programs to encourage the community to get involved in and support local Indigenous tobacco control activities.
Tackling Indigenous Smoking Offer Denise Garlett said that engaging in youth smoking education is an important step to reducing the number of young people taking up smoking.
“Educating young people early on the harmful effects of smoking is critical if we want to break the cycle of tobacco use and addiction,” said Denise.
“We provide tailored school-based activities to encourage students to engage in the workshop and help them say no to smoking.”
“It was fantastic to see the students actively involved in the workshop and the GRAMS TIS team looks forward to welcoming more students from Karalundi College in the future.”
To learn more about the GRAMS Tackling Indigenous Smoking program and what we do, visit our TIS page: https://www.grams.asn.au/geraldton/programs/geraldton-tackling-indigenous-smoking.aspx
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