Work......and bank hols!

As you can see from the picture above, we have been snorkelling in the Great Barrier Reef and it was just amazing.  We could swim amongst the fish (which were so colourful) and swim just above the coral - what a fantastic experience.  The three of us snorkelled together and I was enjoying until Meinir pointed out that there were two reef sharks swimming by us - I quickly swum back to the boat at that point (although they aren't dangerous, I wasn't taking the risk!!!).

Yesterday (Monday), we drove back from Port Douglas to Cairns and on the way, stopped in Hunter's Crocodile Adventures, where we saw wildlife, such as crocs (see pic below of Meinir feeding the crocs), koalas and wallabies.  We all really enjoyed there - the staff were friendly and were full of bad jokes!

Mei and I also loved the koalas and spent a lot of time looking at them!

On the way back to Cairns, we also stopped in Kuranda, a very pretty village, where we took a walk in the rainforest (Alun moaned all the way as it was very humid!). The hat was essential by the way (no comments please!), as the sun was so hot on my head!

Bank hols over and it was back to work this morning (Tuesday).  I had arranged to meet Charlie Adams (Healthy Lifestyle Manager), Nancy Long (Director Business Development) and Nelson Lee (Regional Tobacco Co-ordinator) in Wuchopperen Health Service.  Wuchopperen Health Service is a host organisation to the Tackling Smoking Programme, which is a Federal programme and part of the Closing the Gap strategy.  Below is a picture of us (from left to right) - Nelson, Nancy, myself and Charlie.

Closing the Gap is a commitment by all Australian governments to improve the lives of Indigenous Australians, and in particular provide a better future for Indigenous children.  The 6 targets Closing the Gap is to:

• To close the life-expectancy gap within a generation
• To halve the gap in mortality rates for Indigenous children under five within a decade
• To ensure access to early childhood education for all Indigenous four years olds in remote communities within five years
• To halve the gap in reading, writing and numeracy achievements for children within a decade
• To halve the gap in Indigenous Year 12 achievement by 2020
• To halve the gap in employment outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians within a decade.

The Tackling smoking program is a state wide program that aims to reduce the initiation, prevalence and consumption of tobacco smoking among Aboriginal people in Australia.  We discussed the work that the programme does in the Cairns region, focussing on interventions such as the Smoking Management Policy, outreach work, being present and communicating with the communities in community events and social marketing. 

The Smoking Marketing Policy encourages workplaces to be smokfree, whilst assisting staff also to quit smoking. Staff in these workplaces are not allowed to smoke whilst wearing uniform and both staff are community members visiting the smoke free organisations are reminded not to smoke by using signs such as the ones below:

Role models are sometimes not present within Aboriginal communities (as in all communities) and due to this, the character D Warrior has been created.  D Warrior's message has been printed on a t shirt below (Durries mean cigarettes):

Here is D Warrior, the character:

D Warrior has a high visibility profile, to remind individuals (and especially children) that there is a role model there that supports the smoke free.  D Warrior also attends events, in order to spread the smoke free message. He also appears on water bottels, lanyards, towels, t shirts, bags and stress balls, so that smoke free message is constant and normalised.

As was discussed in previous meetings, the need to develop materials which are culturally appropriate was also discussed. In some communities, literacy and numeracy levels are very low, so visual aids/campaigns are used instead of writing, which some people may not understand.  It's all about trying to convey a message through pictures with maximum effect.  Some individuals in remote communities do not have a TV or radio, making outreach work vital, as mass media camapigns and social marketing campaigns would not reach the targeted community. 

Legislation has certainly helped to make environments snoke free within Australia - in Queensland smoking is not permitted in sports grounds (even if there is no staduim there), in playgrounds (or around playgrounds) and in outside areas where food and drinks are served (to name a few).  What I have noticed in the time that I have been in Australia is that I haven't seen any cigarettes on sale, or any plain packages, as all cigarettes are not displayed in shops or supermarkers (as is starting to be the case in the UK) and are kept behind a plain screen.  One of the things that I wanted to see whilst I was here was an example of a plain packet of cigarettes, but as yet, I haven't seen one packet anywhere.

Thank you very much to Charlie, Nelson and Nancy for the informative meeting this morning - I have had plenty of information to research further into and hopefully adapt to the work that is happening at hime. 

We are leaving Cairns tomorrow (and leaving the rain hopefully) and making our way to Melbourne, where the sun is out!  The time is going too fast and we are trying to make the most of it, as we will be back before we turn round!