T J Aumua
A new challenge has kicked off to encourage more of Auckland’s Pacific community to get healthy.
The goal of the Aiga challenge is to increase Pacific health and well being due to the rise in health scares within the Pacific community in recent years.
Dellas Tipau, mentor to the groups taking part in the challenge, says its purpose is to support exercise and healthy eating during the winter months which is a time where a lot of people tend to “hibernate”.
The 600-plus Aiga competitors weighed in and will have their final weigh in at the end of the eight-week challenge.
West Fono Health Trust and Pasifika Integrated Healthcare support the challenge and funding is from the Waitemata District Health Board (DHB).
The groups are also apart of the Enua Ola health programmes run by West Fono Health Trust which implements exercise and nutritional classes within various church groups.
Trained leader
Each group has a trained leader who runs exercise classes and encourages group members to keep motivated.
Tipau says some barriers that might stop Pacific people from coming to the exercise class are because they like to keep to themselves.
“Our Pacific people are very private people they don’t like to showcase to everyone else what they’re doing.”
Another barrier, he says, is the cultural hierarchy between the young and the elderly, where most group instructors are in their mid 20’s and teaching elders in their Pacific community.
“In our Pacific culture the young are supposed to be seen not heard.”
Triscilla Lurch is one of the instructors at the New Lynn Seventh Day Adventist church in west Auckland, where the group there has 86 registered participants in the Aiga challenge.
Compulsory aerobics
The church group has a compulsory aerobics class every Thursday and a nutrition or boot camp class on a Sunday before their church service.
The 27-year-old says her group have all come up with rules to break down certain cultural barriers.
“Our team came up with that if we’re late as instructors the church get to choose a trainer and they’ll embarrass us and give us a hard out training,” she says.
“So it not only motivates them but if we do something wrong we can’t walk all over them.”
“We’ve given them the option that if they want to play songs they want to play feel free to come up to the instructors and we’ll come up with the moves, or better yet they come up with the moves and teach us and we can teach the group together.”
Christina Muaiava, a keen participator and mother of two, says she joined the challenge because she knew it would be good for her and her family.
“For me the classes are very important. Their important for my lifestyle I don’t like going to the gym and I like coming with my family and meeting the people in the church.”
Muaiava says her church group makes it a safe environment to exercise, where no one judges you but everyone is encouraging.
‘All positive’
“We’re all positive and I think that’s important that we help each other. We can wear what we want. I feel comfortable with my own people…we all eat the same kind of food, and we all come to church.”
The Auckland University librarian says she has been a diabetic for 20 years and says the challenge has meant her family has had to change their eating habits.
“If we could we would eat takeaways everyday because we just get home from work and we just want something fast. But now we have one treat a week otherwise every other day we have to cook. So we have made rules for ourselves.”
She hopes to lose 10kg in the challenge to reach her goal weight.
Although there are a successful number of participants in the challenge, Enua Ola coordinator Lingi Pulesea encourages more Pacific groups to join these types of challenges.
“There’s always room for others to come on board.”
“I think these programmes are important because as we all know our Pacific people are over weight and they are the highest rate of getting heart diseases or diabetes, especially the men they are dying young from heart attacks.”
In August, a prizegiving will be held for all participants.
T J Aumua is a Bachelor of Communication Studies journalism student at AUT University.
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