POET, PASTOR, PASIFIKA, PROVIDER

We speak to Ruana Taito – Diabetes NZ’s Pacific Advocate who knows from real life experience that educating aiga (family) can be the hardest job.

Ruana Taito is a busy woman. She has been flat out, networking within the Porirua community to get herself known, as well as setting up and delivering the Diabetes: Your Life, Your Journey programme. This six-week course, designed for people with type 2 diabetes, is a self-management education programme where attendees get to learn everything there is to know about diabetes, ask all their questions, and connect with diabetes nurses, dietitians, and pharmacists.

Ruana says she understands that the health system is hard to navigate at the best of times and getting a diagnosis can sometimes be overwhelming. Clinical language can be too complicated to fully understand, so she says she is committed to making all information accessible.

Before moving to Porirua, Ruana worked for Counties Manukau District Health for seven years as a Community Social Support Worker.

There she worked in the longterm conditions area, dealing with people with diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, gout, and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. These patients were ‘frequent fliers’ to the Emergency Department. Her team would work out how best to help patients manage their conditions within the community so they could live better lives. Ruana says it often involved a lot of social issues, so the team included a social worker.

She says that, before she started working with the longterm conditions team, she didn’t understand much about type 2 diabetes.

When she and her aiga moved south, she was looking for a similar role but found nothing suitable. However, the Wellington City Mission was advertising for someone with an understanding of transitional housing, so she found herself continuing to help people within the Mission’s housing section.

Mum to five tamaiti (children), Ruana says she is deeply passionate to work within the diverse multicultural community of Porirua, to make a difference in the lives of individuals and families.

POET

It was during her time working for the Wellington City Mission when Ruana was approached to contribute a poem from her point of view. ‘More than a Roof’ was published by Landing Press, a small not-for-profit publisher, in 2021. The collection of poems brought together voices from across the spectrum – from those with no homes, in emergency accommodation, in caravans, in cars, on boats, in rentals, or in their own houses.

Landing Press is a small Wellington publisher that publishes poetry with a social edge. They came up with the idea of poems about housing, working with the social housing sector, and running workshops for men in transitional housing with the Wellington City Mission.

OUR FALEO‘O

Ruana Taito

It looked like the other houses in the village –

all the families had their small beginnings.

There were boxes of clothes for all our big whanau.

My grandparents lay on their stomachs reading their bibles.

There was the beautiful smell of our neighbours cooking

fish, and taro with coconut cream.

My spot in the house was where my aunty and I 

shared our sheet, 

fighting over it as we pulled to win.

I always thought of my mum living in New Zealand, 

how lucky she was, to be sleeping on a bed.

Now, as I dreamed, I’m living in Aotearoa

and I want to go back with my whole aiga, 

to do the things we used to do together

but our small humble faleo’o is no longer there.

Pub: Landing Press
https://www.landingpressnz.com/product-page/more-than-a-roof

LIVING WITH SUCCESS

When asked if she can share any successes of her work within diabetes, Ruana immediately cites the example of the person closest to her. Both born and bred in Samoa, Ruana is married to fellow pastor, Tomasi.

When living in Auckland, Ruana found her husband on the floor at home, after church. ‘He went home before everyone, and we found him on the floor. He’d had a low. Straight away, the ambulance came and picked him up.’

There followed a battle of wills.

‘It wasn’t easy trying to help at the beginning. He was the hardest person to work with because he’s my husband. Stubborn as a man and reluctant to take medication because Pasifika people think medication is not normal for us. It is a Pālagi (Pākehā) thing. Not a Pasifika thing.’

He didn’t listen until she told him that she didn’t want to be a young widow. ‘I didn’t want the kids to live without a father. I told him that they would grow up being angry, if they lost their father at such a young age.’ That was the motivation he needed.

With lifestyle changes, Ruana saw Tomasi’s HbA1c come down from over a hundred.

She believes if she hadn’t worked in the long-term conditions area, her husband would be dead by now. ‘He’s very active. He exercises, and now he fully understands and is doing well. I don’t have to remind him. He does it all.’ Proud of her husband, Ruana says it is due to him having constant support. ‘The entire aiga is on board, and all the children are aware of what it looks like when dad has a hypo or goes high. I thank God I was called to work in this field, and that is why I want to continue in this area.’