News

The Cook Island Health Network Association saw a gap in resources specific to Cook Islands communities to inform them on what works for preventing suicide and has developed Cook Islands specific resources in te reo Māori o te Kuki Airani and English.

Porirua community provider Vakaola has been driving a Suicide Prevention Community Fund initiative that raises awareness and understanding through courageous conversations about suicide within the Porirua community. 

Reverend Fatu Tufuga of the Manurewa Samoan Methodist Church delivered a powerful ‘Positive messages from the Pulpit’ sermon last month, to more than 100 parishioners. 

For the Le Va team, GPS stands for Growing Pasifika Solutions – and is the name for our conference series, which began in 2012. Since that first GPS conference, it has grown and evolved its area of focus; from solutions for the whole of health approach to Pasifika, to Pasifika families. With the upcoming GPS 2016 conference, the attention is now on Pasifika young people, and the issues and solutions they have, bring or require.

In the early planning stages of GPS 2016, our Youth Action Komiti prioritised the inclusion of a Visual Arts space at the conference. Our very own Youth Action Komiti member Zech Soakai is the curator of this space, supported by Amiria Puia-Taylor from the Auckland War Memorial Museum.

The focus of our GPS conference in April is not problems, but solutions. In the words of one of our Youth Action Komiti members, “we are not problems to fix”. And our young advisors are indeed bringing together people with solutions.