There are hopes that a Samoan version of a digital app will build greater awareness among children and their families about rheumatic fever.
The App, orginally in English and Te Reo Maori, is now also in the Samoan language because of the number of Samoan students involved in the project.
This is the story about how young people in South Auckland in New Zealand are beating Rheumatic Fever. Told in their 'beat'. Photo: Beat.Fever
The app developer, Steven Renata, said the children have taken information about rheumatic fever and are making sense of it in their own way using their own language, music and poetry.
"One of the ways they learn the best is when they tell the story in their language, and they are being given the opportunity to empower them to deliver the message from that point of view, is where the message really lands. And that's where you get the engagement factor, that's where you get the comprehension, that's where you get the recall and the transformational behaviour that you are really looking for," said Steven Renata.
Mr Renata said the app has had thousands of downloads and was likely to be developed into other Pacific languages in the future.
The beat.fever project is a collaboration between Mr Renata's Kiwa Digital and managed by the National Hauora Coalition, which led the rheumatic fever prevention programme for Counties Manukau Health.
