Kainga Pasifika Services official launch

December 2022

Building resilient Pasifika families in Hawke’s Bay is the driving force behind Kainga Pasifika Services, which celebrated its standalone charitable trust status and Level 2 Social Sector Accreditation in November.

A traditional 'ava ceremony, followed by hymns, speeches, blessings, entertainment and a shared lunch brought the community together to cement the status.

The only accredited provider of services by Pasifika for Pasifika in Hawke’s Bay, the organisation’s origins date back to 2006, when co-founders Tevita Faka’osi (now Kainga Pasifika Services Trust organisational leader) and Malcolm Byford (then manager of Dove Hawke’s Bay) worked to together to deliver family violence prevention programmes to Pasifika families.

Kainga Pasifika Services continued to deliver programmes under the umbrella of Dove Hawke’s Bay, until it achieved its own charitable trust status in 2021. Its new status means it can now contract to Government agencies to deliver programmes in its own right. Its gratitude for the support from Dove over the years is reflected in the inclusion of the Dove logo in its new branding.

Its permanent home in Tenby Terrace in Flaxmere is the Aubert Centre, named for French nurse and Catholic missionary Suzanne Aubert who spent her adult life working with Māori in New Zealand; more than a decade in the 1800s with mana whenua in Hawke’s Bay. She was much-loved and came to be known as Meri Hōhepa.

From the site, Kainga Pasifika Services promotes and supports safe and health relationships, developing the wellbeing and potential of all Pasifika people in Hawke’s Bay. Programmes include: Safe and Health Relationships, Whanau Ora and Driver Licensing, as well as a Community Connector and Navigators Service and a Social Work Service.