Tongan children’s involvement in research
From The Embassy of Good Science
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Tongan children’s involvement in research
What is this about?
In 2015, for the first time, children and young people in Tonga were invited to take part in research about their lives. From the UK, I worked with the project leaders of two Tongan national charities, Ma’a Ffine mo e Famili (For Women and Families; MFF) and Naunau ‘o ‘Alamaite Tonga Association (NATA), to design, oversee and conduct qualitative research into the experiences and needs of Tongan children. The project leaders wanted to include children, and specifically children with disabilities, not only because they had not been included in research before, but because both anecdotal evidence and evidence from a research project on domestic violence and abuse had suggested Tongan children were at risk of violence and abuse in families.
