Our Trust’s purpose is to improve the educational, cultural, social & environmental wellbeing of those who whakapapa (have genealogical links) to the Te Riu o Waiapu area, where the majority of whanau experience low socio-economic circumstances. Under our education strategy the goal is to support our whanau to understanding their own identity, culture and surroundings to uplift themselves, create educational opportunities to feed their desire to learn and challenge/change their present circumstances.A community Matauranga (education) strategy identified the need for a digital strategy to be developed for the community. Access to the internet and the appropriate tools were requested by a lot of parents. We opened a community computer hublocated in an unused building at the local primary school, where whanau can come to a friendly space, access the internet for free and have a nice community shared space to meet. Our educational, economic, employment and social outcomes have been many:
One of our skilled whanau volunteered to work with the local mums (on Digi-Mama) and REAP as many had confidence issues. We employed her for 10 per week to provide this current set of computer classes and to manage the community computer hub.