Grandmother graduates in social work

A fabulous day for myself and my family, was how Cook Islander Elizabeth Daniels described her graduation ceremony at Kirikiriroa Marae in Hamilton last Friday. Along with other graduands at Wintecs Waikato Capping ceremony, Elizabeth was joined by family and friends to witness her graduation for a Diploma in Social Work from Wintec. Although it has been a long struggle with family responsibilities, maintaining a full time job as a social worker and studies, it has finally paid off.
For Elizabeth, this has been a major achievement given that she is in her late 50’s and never thought she would be able to complete her studies due to many other commitments. Apart from being a mother, grandmother and a heavy work schedule, she has enjoyed every moment of study and would do it all again but for now, she is quite content and looking forward to just taking a break and concentrating on her job as a social worker with the Child, Youth and Families Services in Tokoroa.
Gaining this qualification is a milestone for Elizabeth as she never thought she would be able to start studying again. When you get to my age, study becomes more of a challenge and there were times when I struggled especially with familiarizing myself with computer technology however, my family and work colleagues have been absolutely supportive during all of my studies to which I am grateful.
I really love my job and the interaction with family, social services agencies and the community. As a community, we are going through some testing times especially with family and domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse and child neglect. Unfortunately the incidence ratio amongst our own Cook Islands community is still too high and more awareness and support from within our own people is required if we are to break this cycle of abuse and neglect.
There is also a dire need to have more Cook Islands social workers because the nature of the work can be very stressful and challenging. It’s almost a 24/7 job and goodness knows how I managed to study and maintain a stressful job as well. This qualification will help me to balance the theory with the practical and serves as a guide in working with difficult youth and family situations and who knows, I may decide to carry on studying, said Daniels content at just getting over this first hurdle.
Historically, Tokoroa has a small but energetic Pacific community. Over the years, it has built its status and leadership credibility on the early Cook Islands pioneers who started working at the Kinleith Mills under NZ Forest Products and through it own internal voluntary welfare system adopted mainly from the island of Aitutaki, these pioneers began bringing over young, male workers to work at the mills.
Several generations have evolved and today, there is a small but active community of Cook Islands people who remain in Tokoroa amidst the cold, declining population and changing community dynamics.
Daniels concedes that she has her work cut out for her because of the growing incidence rates of alcohol and child abuse but we are coping as best we can with the resources that are available to us. It is important that our people are aware that there are services available in the community where we can help each other but we need to know that there are issues that exist out there rather than us becoming “the ambulance at the cliff.” I know people’s attitudes have changed and family dynamics are facing more challenges because of global changes but the principle of “family” still remains. Without that, there is no wonder we have a disconnected community and families facing economical, emotional and social problems.

Herald Issue 463 10 June
- World famous activist assisting residents
- Budget will decide if residents prosecute Government over landfill
- Forestry project sucking Mangaia dry
- Budget 2010 – fiasco or disaster?