“…Kara spoke with passion, understanding and also in a way that offered a way forward, so the past did not have to determine either current or future situations.” (The Rev Wayne Matheson, Assembly Executive Secretary, Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa NZ
“…Once again her presenting was outstanding and successful in motivating faith leaders to commit to developing their skills in family violence intervention. Kara’s intimate knowledge of safe practice in family violence and faith work was critical to the success of this programme.
….She is able to motivate professionals from a variety of backgrounds to do their best for clients in an area of practice many find uncomfortable.” (Dr Russell Wills, Paediatrician and Children’s Commissioner)
….She is able to motivate professionals from a variety of backgrounds to do their best for clients in an area of practice many find uncomfortable.” (Dr Russell Wills, Paediatrician and Children’s Commissioner)
“The It’s not OK campaign team were incredibly impressed with Kara’s skilled respectful and knowledgeable approach – in her workshops she holds audience attention, helps people understand domestic/family violence, but more importantly she enables people to connect to the issue at the heart level. We appreciate working with Kara and recognize her leadership and relationship management skills in supporting the deep personal and community change.” (Sheryl Hann, Senior Advisor, Social Action, Ministry of Social Development
“Kara is the quintessential trainer in the area of family violence; weaving together her personal experience, academic training and vast experience as a practitioner and trainer, she gently invites people into a greater understanding and experience of the dynamics of family violence.” (Malcolm Byford, Manager DOVE HB - Domestic Violence Intervention and Education, Hawke’s Bay
"Kara has shown in depth realistic religious personal and professional knowledge staggered in strata of systematics concepts of the overall issues of “Against Family Violence”. She manages to probe participants innate understanding of just truth and living with others; yet portrays challenging issues in subtle learning experiences; that participants not only engage but are transposed through the journeys of unchartered territories. Of significance is Kara’s ability to delve in respective participants cultural and spiritual entities as Family Violence is unravelled. Sharing with Pacific People Hawkes Bay has explored into the languages and cultures of the Pacific. She would be the pioneer to spearhead Against Family Violence into Pacific People Aotearoa as well as Pasefika wide." (Valeluaga Filipo Losefa - Community Leader of Tuvalu, Tokelau and i-Kiribati People)
"Kara’s expertise, knowledge and experience is imperative to helping faith communities in Hawkes Bay and also around New Zealand address this very difficult area of family violence that is affecting our society so much today, especially within our own faith communities. Historically this has been a challenging area to address as faith leaders, but Kara has an ability and an understanding of faith communities to help demystify the issues and give the confidence to address them purposefully through her skills training.” (Pastor John Drower, The Station Community Church, Hastings)
“The group of Pasifika leaders whom she trained, which included men, women and church leaders, felt very safe and respected by her; she knows what she is talking about and is very honest, trustworthy, and very practical. To conclude, Kara is an excellent trainer, full of knowledge and experience and I recommend her to any Pacific Island Groups. I respect her very much.” (Tevita Faka’osi, Coordinator Kainga Pasifika Services)
“Kara is a highly skilled trainer/facilitator in the family violence sector. The workshops that she facilitated in Auckland on Faith & Culture in the Family Violence context for refugee, migrants and Hindu & Muslim faith communities were delivered in a sensitive manner; the contents of the workshops reflected the careful consideration given to the cultural, spiritual and linguistic backgrounds of these communities. By drawing on her personal experience as a person of faith and survivor of family violence, her story has encouraged victims of family violence to reach out, to seek help and to understand their rights in New Zealand.” (Jenny Janif, Relationship Manager Community Relations, Refugee & Migrant Populations, Family & Community Services, MSD)
“Kara Duncan-Hewitt is an excellent trainer of complex family violence matters… from a recent two day training Kara designed with and for us and provided ….very experienced workers… are unanimous in their appreciation of the content, methods and the delivery of the workshop that increased their understanding, knowledge, approaches, skills, tools, strategies, connections and confidence – in short, that deepened and enriched their understandings and practices with whanau, families, individuals, services and colleagues.”(Clare Fearnley, Whanganui Family Violence Intervention Network and Projects Coordinator)
“…She is very experienced and knowledgeable, and has a very caring and sensitive way of working with people and groups… In my opinion Kara is one of the best practitioners available in New Zealand” (Lianne Jaycock, Practice Manager, Te Manawa Services)
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“Kara Duncan – Hewitt was invited to Vanuatu in 2016 by the Channels’ of Hope Project - World Vision Vanuatu, to provide training in counselling skills, to faith leaders and their spouses, as well as chiefs and their spouses.
Faith leaders in Vanuatu who attended the training by Kara, in the areas of Family Violence, are convinced that the training and skills are practical and applicable in the Vanuatu context, and is what we need in Vanuatu. Thus, World Vision continues to invite Kara to come to Vanuatu to provide the Counselling trainings.
As a Facilitator trained by Kara, I speak highly of Kara. As a highly skilled Trainer/Facilitator in Family violence. She is very experienced, and knowledgeable in counselling, and is caring and sensitive when working with people of a different culture like Vanuatu. She has a lot of experience that she brought into her training which makes her training easy for participants to grasp and apply. She motivates faith leaders who attended the Counselling workshops as well as the Men’s Behavioural Change workshop participants, to believe that the Counselling tools that she taught, if applied well will change and transform the people of Vanuatu. We are motivated for a National change in Vanuatu....
We are so thankful to Kara for helping the Faith Leaders of Vanuatu.”
(Pastor Fiama Rakau, Presbyterian Church, Port Vila; and World Vision Vanuatu Faith and Engagement Mentor).
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“Dear Kara, I have been attending quite a lot of different seminars that you run in Vanuatu, I would like to thank God for your life. God has given you a very special gift of wisdom to unveil many truths that really bless my life. Thank you for your courage to explain these truths in the word of God that I can easily grasp.
You have been a real blessing to our Nation. Yours in His Kingdom,”
(Pastor Joseph Yarai, Senior Pastor Christian Mission Centre, Port Vila, Vanuatu.)
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“Kara's teachings on counselling skills specifically on reducing family violence are the best. They are very relevant, applicable, inspiring and life transforming. I've never heard of any teachings like what Kara teaches, very powerful. I highly recommend her teachings for any Men's Behavioral Change Program where ever men are highly the perpetrators of violence & abuses. Kara doesn't only have a very good knowledge on this but her life speaks a lot on this as well and also she is very passionate and very positive about what she is doing. With this and on this, I would like to say it again loud and clear that Kara's teachings are the best for reducing family violence especially the counselling skills she teaches.”
(Pastor Mansen Roy, Senior Development Facilitator for Gender Program World Vision Vanuatu. Bach Arts in Biblical Studies,-South Pacific Bible College. Creditional holder for Assemblies Of God Church in Vanuatu)
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“… Kara has developed and delivered skills-based counselling training to faith and community leaders of Vanuatu to address family violence in their congregations and communities. Kara continually demonstrates appropriate and respectful practice and develops robust working relationships in a context of strong Christian and cultural identity. Her ability to build the capacity of others to implement considered counselling interventions balancing family, community and faith context is delivered within best social work and development practice…
Kara is an extremely dedicated, experienced and committed professional that has become an integral part of World Vision Vanuatu’s programme working to reduce family and gender-based violence for women, children and men in Vanuatu.
(Amy Gardiner, Social Work and Gender Technical Advisor, World Vision Vanuatu)
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“Extremely powerful and transformative presentation delivered with heart and soul.” “Thank you for empowering me both within my Whanau and Mahi. You are a powerful woman. It is so lovely to hear someone address spiritual growth.” “This was once of the most outstanding trainings I’ve been to. SO informative, impassioned, and heaps of useful resources!” “We have been honoured and respected – this has been a safe space to be in.” “Kara’s open-minded and conscious delivery of such important material gave me such a thorough understanding of the subject. Kara dealt with each individual with a huge amount of compassion and understanding that it allowed me to understand the content on both a personal and professional level.” “Very powerful tools to take home.” “This workshop brought healing for me.”
(Multiple Participants from a Hauraki Family Violence Intervention Workshop Kara facilitated on “The Correlation of Childhood Grief and Trauma and the Cycle of Violence,” 2019).
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“Kara Duncan – Hewitt was invited to Vanuatu in 2016 by the Channels’ of Hope Project - World Vision Vanuatu, to provide training in counselling skills, to faith leaders and their spouses, as well as chiefs and their spouses.
Faith leaders in Vanuatu who attended the training by Kara, in the areas of Family Violence, are convinced that the training and skills are practical and applicable in the Vanuatu context, and is what we need in Vanuatu. Thus, World Vision continues to invite Kara to come to Vanuatu to provide the Counselling trainings.
As a Facilitator trained by Kara, I speak highly of Kara. As a highly skilled Trainer/Facilitator in Family violence. She is very experienced, and knowledgeable in counselling, and is caring and sensitive when working with people of a different culture like Vanuatu. She has a lot of experience that she brought into her training which makes her training easy for participants to grasp and apply. She motivates faith leaders who attended the Counselling workshops as well as the Men’s Behavioural Change workshop participants, to believe that the Counselling tools that she taught, if applied well will change and transform the people of Vanuatu. We are motivated for a National change in Vanuatu....
We are so thankful to Kara for helping the Faith Leaders of Vanuatu.”
(Pastor Fiama Rakau, Presbyterian Church, Port Vila; and World Vision Vanuatu Faith and Engagement Mentor).
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“Dear Kara, I have been attending quite a lot of different seminars that you run in Vanuatu, I would like to thank God for your life. God has given you a very special gift of wisdom to unveil many truths that really bless my life. Thank you for your courage to explain these truths in the word of God that I can easily grasp.
You have been a real blessing to our Nation. Yours in His Kingdom,”
(Pastor Joseph Yarai, Senior Pastor Christian Mission Centre, Port Vila, Vanuatu.)
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“Kara's teachings on counselling skills specifically on reducing family violence are the best. They are very relevant, applicable, inspiring and life transforming. I've never heard of any teachings like what Kara teaches, very powerful. I highly recommend her teachings for any Men's Behavioral Change Program where ever men are highly the perpetrators of violence & abuses. Kara doesn't only have a very good knowledge on this but her life speaks a lot on this as well and also she is very passionate and very positive about what she is doing. With this and on this, I would like to say it again loud and clear that Kara's teachings are the best for reducing family violence especially the counselling skills she teaches.”
(Pastor Mansen Roy, Senior Development Facilitator for Gender Program World Vision Vanuatu. Bach Arts in Biblical Studies,-South Pacific Bible College. Creditional holder for Assemblies Of God Church in Vanuatu)
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“… Kara has developed and delivered skills-based counselling training to faith and community leaders of Vanuatu to address family violence in their congregations and communities. Kara continually demonstrates appropriate and respectful practice and develops robust working relationships in a context of strong Christian and cultural identity. Her ability to build the capacity of others to implement considered counselling interventions balancing family, community and faith context is delivered within best social work and development practice…
Kara is an extremely dedicated, experienced and committed professional that has become an integral part of World Vision Vanuatu’s programme working to reduce family and gender-based violence for women, children and men in Vanuatu.
(Amy Gardiner, Social Work and Gender Technical Advisor, World Vision Vanuatu)
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“Extremely powerful and transformative presentation delivered with heart and soul.” “Thank you for empowering me both within my Whanau and Mahi. You are a powerful woman. It is so lovely to hear someone address spiritual growth.” “This was once of the most outstanding trainings I’ve been to. SO informative, impassioned, and heaps of useful resources!” “We have been honoured and respected – this has been a safe space to be in.” “Kara’s open-minded and conscious delivery of such important material gave me such a thorough understanding of the subject. Kara dealt with each individual with a huge amount of compassion and understanding that it allowed me to understand the content on both a personal and professional level.” “Very powerful tools to take home.” “This workshop brought healing for me.”
(Multiple Participants from a Hauraki Family Violence Intervention Workshop Kara facilitated on “The Correlation of Childhood Grief and Trauma and the Cycle of Violence,” 2019).