Harmony Day
Umoona Tjutagku Health Service Aboriginal Co. and the Puyu Blasters from the Aboriginal Health Council of SA have come together to provide a SMOKE FREE Community harmony family day in Coober Pedy.
Our diversity makes Australia a great place to live. Harmony day is a celebration of our cultural diversity – a day of cultural respect for everyone who calls Australia home.
The message of harmony day is ‘Everyone Belongs’, the day was aimed to engage community to participate in a family fun day and learn about other cultures.
The big event of the night was the men and women’s soccer game. The players were from all different cultures including Aboriginal, Sri Lankan, Italian, Greek and Indian.
The Puyu Blasters where a big hit with the Puyu Blaster superhero delivering education to the youth on the importance of living Smoke Free. While the Puyu blaster superhero was a hit with the youth, A major focus of the strategy is collecting evidence of smoking prevalence in communities(how many smokers and non-smokers), what people know of the dangers of smoking and existence of environmental smoke or second hand (passive) smoking. The surveys we ask people to complete are tools to collect information on the communities we work in; this information provides a snap shot of a portion of the broader population and helps influences the message or the focus for our smoking education, awareness and social marketing in those communities and similar population in other regions.
The questions in the survey are not confronting or judgemental about peoples smoking, they are probing questions aimed at finding out what people know about smoking, what measures they take to provide a smoke free space for vulnerable people; children, pregnant women and those with respiratory issues for example asthma. Also finding out community’s knowledge of changing laws about smoking in public spaces for example outdoor eatery’s, public transport stops and sporting fields/playgrounds.
The questions are also about measuring smoking and non-smoking rates, finding out what messages or influences are having an impact to reduce smoking rates, are Commonwealth strategies like plain packaging working? is it the 12.5% excise - increasing the cost of cigarettes every year?, or are the health messages changing behaviour…
People are becoming aware of the dangers and changes to the law protecting children for second hand/passive smoking.
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