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A Pacific-focused fitness group, started by Women’s Centre Rodney, has grown into a regular sports night, held at Mahurangi College on Saturdays, from 5pm to 7pm.
Harbour Sport Pacific community manager Asenati Tavita started holding fitness classes at the Women’s Centre around the middle of this year.
At the same time, through Harbour’s Sports Pasifik Programme, Asenati was visiting Mahurangi College and coaching young Pacific players.
Asenati says many of the mums in the women’s group have children in the Pasifik programme, so there was value in connecting the dots and forming a regular sports group.
“The Saturday games night for women and children proved popular attracting more than 30 tamariki, rangatahi and wahine,” she says.
The children have been trained to run the sports evenings themselves through Harbour Sport’s Equip’d and Nga Tamatoa programmes.
“It teaches children how to run the games and expands their capability to encourage others to play.
Teaching this community to run their own games nights also has a flow-on effect, by showing others how easy it is to be active.”
Asenati thanked Mahurangi College principal David Macleod for providing a safe space for Pasifika families and allowing them to be the drivers of the initiative.
