NZ Samoans use bikes to convey health message
A group of New Zealand Samoans are using bikes to take their health message to men in their home country.
Transcript
A group of New Zealand Samoans are using bikes to take their health message to men in their home country.
The group, USO, which is the Samoan word for brother, was inspired by Chris Te'o who lost his father to pancreatic cancer in 2009.
Mr Te'o says the group has been able to take the healthy message to Samoa, and more recently Hawaii.
He told Moera Tuilaepa-Taylor about the group's work.
CHRIS TE'O: I thought to myself, in 2011, I will cycle from Auckland to Porirua, stop along the way in communities to talk about what you can do to reduce the risk of cancer, and we did that in 2011 with the help of my brother-in-law Mark Lerwill, whose own family has been through a lot of battles in terms of cancer but his wife, my sister Ngaire, also had breast cancer, and so, he was wonderful but also at the same time I reconnected with some old friends Talalelei and Miriama Taufale who have been pivotal in getting USO to where is is now, and it's been great.
MOERA TUILAEPA-TAYLOR: I know you have also taken the message to Pacific countries as well.
CT: I think the great thing about the bike is that we can use it as a way to put that awareness message in another format but it's something that I don't think has been done before perhaps overseas it has been but for our communities it's not normal to see our people riding on bikes but for us it has been wonderfully received and we have been fortunately to go to Samoa twice now and we have done some work with the Samoa Cancer Society who have been incredible in terms of giving us the opportunity to do work in Samoa. Last year we rode around both islands stopping at villages talking about what they can do to reduce their risk and I think for us the prevention message is key because you know right now in terms of statistics for our people, if you look at all the lifestyle diseases our statistics are not that great but USO's message is about that prevention message about doing somethings you have control over. So for us it has been such a wonderful experience.
MTT: And during your time in Samoa what were peoples reactions like.
CT: It was unbelievable, I think we were all really apprehensive, last year we were thinking what are our people going to say about us being on bikes but it was really well received and this year the team went back, I was unfortunately not able to go but the team went back and they went to schools this time and it was just incredible response and support for the message and just for the USO team as well, and the Samoa Cancer Society, a credit to them for giving us the opportunity to do that because they are a relatively new organisation but they are doing some wonderful work in Samoa in terms of awareness raising and for them to give us the opportunity and to be so well received by our people has just been incredible.
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