On Saturday 12 February, the ProCare team alongside Healthy Village Action Zones (HVAZ), Diabetes Auckland, Ready Steady Quit and the parish nurse, visited St Therese Catholic Church, a new member of ProCare HVAZ churches, to provide free health screenings and guidance around making healthy lifestyle changes.

Father Ahrul blessed the day by opening with prayer, followed by health screenings for all whānau. Nurses and health practitioners were on hand to check blood pressure, BMI, screen for diabetes, provide smoking support services and give guidance on how to start making healthy food choices.

Each person was talked through their results and what it meant. This was to give them a greater understanding of their numbers (HbA1c, BP, BMI etc), the impact on their health, and how they can make simple changes to improve it.

Bindi Norwell, Chief Executive of ProCare says: “Partnering with these organisations in a space that our community knows and is comfortable in, is key to what we do. Having a range of services in the same room means we can capture everyone at once, and saves them from making multiple trips to various health practices.”

Masuisui Sam Partsch, HVAZ Pacific Project Coordinator says: “These programmes aren’t just about weight loss, it’s about our entire wellbeing and behaviour change. Today we started the journey with members of St Therese Catholic Church, and we will walk together towards a healthier future.”

Mums and their babies, through to grandparents, were all taking part in this event. Rosalie Su’a, spokesperson for St Therese Church says, “Thank-you all so much for your advice and encouragement. When you visit in the future, I hope we can show you the steps we’ve taken after your advice. From the bottom of our hearts, thank-you.”

This new partnership with Diabetes Auckland is vital in our fight to reduce the diabetes crisis for our Pacific population. We aim to extend this service to our remaining 13 ProCare HVAZ churches and provide for our other communities requesting this service too.

About Healthy Village Action Zones (HVAZ)
HVAZ is a significant partnership programme between the Auckland District Health Board, ProCare and Pacific church communities in the Auckland District. HVAZ brings together Pacific churches from Avondale, Mt Roskill, Mt Albert, Grey Lynn, Ponsonby, Otahuhu, Onehunga, Glen Innes and Panmure. These areas have been selected due to the high numbers of Pacific people and strong networks of Pacific churches within these geographical areas.

The HVAZ Vision is a model of self-determination and community-led development that aims to support Pacific communities to develop their own solutions to their health priorities. HVAZ recognises the strengths and the passion of Pacific church communities and seeks to provide a framework that will enable better access to quality primary health care services and health promotion activities.

Despite the shift in focus towards COVID-19 vaccination and protection for our families, ProCare churches have continued to participate in other projects like the Garden4Health challenge, nutrition training in partnership with Pacific Heartbeat, and DigiFale App training with Moana Research to build confidence in patient portal and other initiatives.

Check out the HVAZ Facebook page here.