At Tonga Leitis Association, we prioritise the health and safety of our communty through inclusive awareness trainings, strategic interventions, and inclusive educational programs. In order to improve our appraoches toward Health and Education, we commit to ensure we achieve the following key goals:
Improve the health, safety, and well-being of SOGIESC people; and
Provide an educational platform for SOGIESC community and increase knowledge on related issues.
All our project activities under Health and Edcuation should aligned with the above-stated objectives.
Since 2017, TLA have reached out to its members through HIV awareness training and testing. The key objectives of these activities are:
The Tonga Leitis Association is one of the 3 organisations in Tonga that provide HIV & STI Awareness for its Key Target Populations are the Men who have sex with Men, Trangender and Youths.
There are only 3 Sub-Receipients in Tonga from the Grand provided by the GLOBAL FUND to the 11 Countries in the Pacific. The Tonga Leitis Association is working close together with the Ministry of Health and also the Tonga Family Health to prevent Tonga from harmed
The TLA has been published its Campaign on HIV field through Social Media;
HIV & Testing Awareness Campaign
You can register here for the upcoming HIV Testing!!
A summary of related activities conducted each year is provided below:
| Key Activities | Achievements | Approximate Cost in TOP |
| 2018 | ||
| HIV Awareness Sessions and Testings |
|
To be confirmed |
| Ongoing Condom Distribution |
|
To be confirmed |
| 2019 | ||
| HIV Information and Testing sessions |
|
To be confirmed |
| Ongoing Condom Distribution |
|
To be confirmed |
All photos relating to previous HIV activities are available on our Gallery section.
NETBALL TOURNAMENT
Playing netball is one of the famous sports for most TLA members. As such, we host an anual Netball Tournament as part of our approach toward healthy lifestyle and it's available for Men, Women, Boys and Girls in Tonga.
Further information will be published here. For photos of previous events, please visit our Gallery section for more details.
Arii Oe Hau Netball Tournament
RUGBY
Some of our members are also involved with the female rugby team. As such, we are working toward improving our appraoch towards women in this sport. More details will be updated here when become available.
This initiative is funded by the Rei Foundation under the project "Equipped for Change" by supporting TLA members that dropped out from school. The Ahopanilolo Technical Institute welcomed students selected by TLA because of their natural talent and skills. You can visit our donor here, REI FOUNDATION
SCHOLARSHIP’S SELECTION CRITERIA
The Tonga Leitis Association has more than 500+ members and there are more that are not yet recorded under our TLA membership system. These are LGBT individuals that are staying in the remote islands and also the remote areas at the mainland. The TLA admin team are aware of those that are in need of assistant and in need of finance support.
Most of the Leitis are staying in relatives and also friends, these leitis has experienced some of labelling and discrimination, for they are not entitle to a job to provide anything to help for their living. These are the members that we think that TLA should support as they can do better in life.
The admin team selected the students and bring their names for table discussion with the Advisory committee that they are the decision makers of Tonga Leitis Association. The TLA has an policy for selection of students to be in line with the TLA Core Values. The selections should consider the value of diversity and inclusiveness.
Here are the process for selecting receipients for the scholarship program;
Advertise the Application Form in the social media and also the radio
Review the applications by the 2 focal person and pick the selections
Present the applicants to the Advisory Committee for review
Advisory vote and reveal the result
The focal person will be announce the success applicants in the social media and contacted
The applicants will be complete the agreement form with the TLA and the Parent or the guardian
ROLE OF TLA ADMINISTRATION IN THIS PROJECT
The Administration is based at the TLA Headquarter in Nuku’alofa. Its role in this project is to maintain the project and to look after the scholarship. The Admin Team are looking after the program are Joey Mataele and Cruella Tu’inukuafe. These two are the main focus person in Tonga that works closely with the Ahopanilolo Technical Institute in following up with the studies of TLA Scholars.
Joey Mataele is responsible for the selection of our scholarships students, by hand pick them from the members that are struggle with financial support at home and also hardly any reliable income for the family. As we all know, Tonga is a small country and TLA are able to identify its members and easy to locate them in the island.
Cruella is responsible for all the Admin work at the TLA Office. She is also responsible for the communication between the Principle and teachers at the Institutions on how each scholar are doing at the classroom. Cruella is also responsible on holding the fund from the Rei-Foundation to pay for these student’s school fees and all that.
The Tonga Leitis Association started working in the Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights Field since the organisation started in 1992. This was only focus on Health & Wellbeing at that time. Later in 2017 the UNFPA and the Ministry of Health addressed the important of inclusiveness and to addressed the needs of Key Affected Population in Tonga. That's when TLA work close with the MOH Principle Planning Officer, Mr. Sioape Kupu and the Program Analysis Officer of the UNFPA in Tonga, Ms 'Elisi Tupou, recommended that TLA should also apply for UNFPA Grant 3 Years Cycle 2018 -2020 to support the TLA Peer Education. In 2018 TLA started with training 20 Peer Educator to prepared themselves for the long run of this organisations and providing services to the community. In 2019, TLA trained again 12 Peers to also carry on the work in Sexual Reproductive Health Rights. In 2020, TLA's indicators were increase up to train 110 peer educators for the year 2020. In 2020, TLA came up with a lot of Activities that under the SRHR, such as Camping, Consultation, Workshops and Retreat also the Fund were able to covered some of the staffs allowances and the admin costs. These activities were success and also UNFPA fund was able to support the developing the TLA Strategic Plan 2021 - 2025
TLA Activity in 2018
The TLA Activity in 2018 was for Peer Education and its indicator were 20 Peer Educator. This training took place at the Pasilica Conference Room, led by the TLA team - Peer Education TOT 2018
TLA Activity in 2019
The TLA Activity in 2019 were able to selected 12 members to carry on the work for TLA in the coming future. This was the developing of the SOGIE guideline and to be contexualised to Tonga Context. TLA hired Ms. Phylesha Acton Brown from the NZ Project and also a SOGIEs experts to led the training. This 4 Days training took place at the INternational Dateline Tanoa Hotel - TLA Retreat (SOGIEs Guideline)
TLA Activities in 2020
These are the success outcome of 2020;