‘Ofa-Ki-Levuka Guttenbeil-Likiliki
Director, Women and Children Crisis Centre (WCCC), Tonga
Ofa-Ki-Levuka Guttenbeil-Likiliki is the Director of the Women and Children Crisis Centre (WCCC) in Tonga. She has a post-graduate degree in media from the University of Auckland and also has a Diploma in International Broadcast Journalism with the Thomson Foundation in collaboration with the University of Cardiff, Wales. Her passion is telling women’s stories in the context of advocating for their rights, particularly in situations where women and girls’ rights to development and rights to accessing public services are violated. She believes that when you share the lived realities of women’s struggles and challenges, only then can you start talking about REAL solutions. She is passionate about the issues of violence against women and girls, women in decision making and women’s property and land rights and how all these issues relate to each other in the context of advocating for the overall achievement of Gender Equality and the meaningful empowerment of women and girls in Tonga and the Pacific. In 2010 the WCCC, under the leadership of Guttenbeil-Likiliki, received the prestigious South Pacific Commission (SPC) Human Rights Award in recognition of their work in promoting women’s human rights in Tonga.