Whenua Hou recently hosted our first Whānau Hauora day. There are now around 130 people living in the Te Whenua Hou community and around a hundred of them took time out of their work day to attend the hauora event. Farming staff and Whenua Kura students were provided with a ‘health passport’ and encouraged to visit the different providers offering everything from free blood pressure and eye tests to advice on diabetes, money management, sexual health, cardio-respiratory health, tax refunds, immigration dental care, insurance, breast screening, rongoā Māori and more.
“We want to do everything we can to help our Whenua Kura students and farming whānau to connect with each other and their wider communities. It’s about empowering them to look after themselves and each other and it’s about encouraging them to have a say about what they need and how we are going to achieve it,” says Raniera Dallas, the whānau community champion for Te Whenua Hou.
As it grows we hope to extend out to our wider community so it becomes a community event hosted by Ngāi Tahu Farming. I think it’s important to create a community environment where our people feel more socially connected and our hauora day is a positive step towards that.
Over the next coming months we have events planned to keep the whānau engaged, grow our community stronger and uplift our Ngāi Tahutaka. Watch this space for more updates.
From left: Elya Ameriks, Raniera Dallas, Kirstine MacPherson.
Christian Peterson having his blood pressure checked as part of the ‘health passport’.
Kai time at Eyre Lodge.
