Former South Sydney Rabbitoh Beau Champion and Souths Cares visited St Therese Catholic Primary School in Mascot to help promote Anti-Bullying Day through the KARI Wellbeing Program.
Last Friday was the eighth National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence and schools across the country united together to raise awareness of this important issue.
Working as a Souths Cares ambassador, Champion hopes he can use his profile to further educate kids on the effects of bullying.
Beau Champion“I feel that in the South Sydney area and across the board, Rugby League players play a big part in a lot of kids’ lives.”
“It’s something that really needs to be touched on,” said Champion.
“We go to a lot of schools and when we ask if bullying happens in their school, we’ll probably see 75 to 80% of the kids’ hands go up, which is a really alarming number.
“I think it’s really important to try and use our profile to improve that statistic.”
While Anti-Bullying Day is a great opportunity to spread awareness to the wider community, Champion knows that there is still plenty of work to do.
“Obviously it’s going to be tough to eliminate all bullying,” added Champion.
“If we can reduce it as much as possible, it’s going to make sure that these kids come to school happy.”
However, the former Rabbitohs’ outside back is pleased with the results that Souths Cares and the Kari Wellbeing Program has produced and is delighted that programs now exist to help kids tackle bullying.
“When I was a kid, we didn’t have the same education on bullying and the trauma it can cause somebody,” Champion explained.
“I think now with the education programs available, kids are learning strategies to help them deal with bullying and also what to do if they see bullying happening.
“The main message we are trying to get across is, if you see someone or it’s happening to you, tell somebody.”
