Intersex Awareness Day
26 October
Supporting children, young people, and their whānau to navigate through tough times by building RESILIENT INDIVIDUALS and COMMUNITIES.
The Resilience Hub consists of an online resource site that contains articles, videos, links, an online shop and a physical hub offering personalised information, support, counselling services and library.
The thoughts, feelings and reactions we experience, when we’re faced with change and loss, whatever our age, are known as grief.
Relationships, including romantic relationships, can bring us deep joy and connection and they take work.
Families are constantly changing.
Skylight receives many requests for information and support from young people, whānau and people working with them, around LGBTQI+ issues.
There may be grief associated with the loss of health that can come, with an illness and disability.
Violence is the use of physical harm, or the threat of harm. When this violence causes fear in another person, it becomes an abusive action.
Is the ability to bounce back when we face tough times, helping us to cope.
Supporting yourself, your whānau, and others after a disaster.
Trauma is a response to either a one-time event – such as an earthquake – or to many adverse experiences over time – such as Domestic Violence.
The death or anticipated death of someone important to you, can cause great grief and sadness, whatever the cause of death.
When someone ends their own life, we say they have died by suicide.
Behaviour in children and young people may indicate that something is “going on”, that they don’t feel equipped to manage. Sometimes that can be challenging.
Intersex Awareness Day on Friday 26 October is an international day of grass-roots action to raise awareness, end shame, secrecy and unwanted surgeries and medical interventions on intersex children. The day also provides an opportunity for reflection and political action.
Intersex is an umbrella term used to describe a wide range of people born with variations of sex characteristics that doesn’t fit typical definitions of male or female bodies.
Being intersex is a naturally occurring variation. For some people intersex traits are visible at birth while for others they might not know they’re intersex until later in life, like when they go through puberty. Sometimes a person can live their whole life without ever knowing that they’re intersex.
Internationally it has become common practice to subject intersex children to unnecessary surgical and other procedures to try to make their appearance conform to binary sex stereotypes. These often-harmful medical procedures are regularly performed without the informed consent of the person concerned. In Aotearoa we do not support these unconsented medical interventions and are more focused towards supporting young people and their whānau to connect to support networks where they can make informed choices about their bodies.
Being intersex relates to biological sex characteristics and is distinct from a person's sexual orientation or gender identity. There is a big difference between intersex and transgender, but some intersex people do identify as transgender.
Around 1.7% of people across the world are intersex, this is the same as the number of people with red hair. That is over 75 million people across the world or 15 times the population of Aotearoa.
Intersex Trust of Aotearoa New Zealand ITANZ and their project group Intersex Youth Aotearoa are working to further enhance the communities understanding of intersex people and improve the health and well-being for intersex people across Aotearoa.
Find out more here
Skylight is here to help you through difficult times. We can assist you in a variety of ways with information appropriate for your situation. You are welcome to visit us and receive free information and a support pack from our resource centre and borrow books from the specialist library. We also facilitate Professional Development training and offer Counselling support services for children, young people, family/whānau and individuals who are experiencing tough times.
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