Spreading awareness to keep safe

Published: 30 September 2012

Ties to a cause: Nudgee "Stella Fellas" proudly wear bow-ties to raise awareness of human trafficking

HUMAN trafficking and child protect-ion took centre stage at two Catholic schools this month.

Students at St Joseph's Nudgee College, Boondall, donned bow-ties on September 7 to raise awareness of the issue of human trafficking.

College marketing manager Tanya King said the day also raised awareness of the great work of organisations such as Australian Catholic Religious Against Human Trafficking (ACRATH) and Project Futures who are working to put an end to human trafficking.

"Students were able to nominate teachers or senior students as being good male role models (Stella Fellas) and female teachers could be nominated as Stella Bellas," she said.

"Other students also purchased small bow-tie clips which had been made by rescued, former forced prostitutes."

Ms King said more than 200 bow-ties were sold on the day and $8000 was raised for Project Futures.

Meanwhile, students from Xavier Catholic College, Hervey Bay, used Child Protection Week to focus on ways to keep themselves safe.

A college spokesperson said the protective behaviour education aimed to inform students on two important themes.

"We all have the right to feel safe all of the time and nothing is so awful that we can't talk about it with someone we trust," the spokesperson said.

They said information about how students could keep themselves safe, how they could know when they were not safe, that they are in charge of their own bodies, and who to tell when they felt unsafe and to keep telling until someone listened was all covered during the week.

"How to keep yourself safe online was also discussed with students who have access to the Internet," the spokespeson said.

Xavier Year 5 students also got to produce a take-home resource which identified people who could help them at school and at home.