It's less expensive too, says Andromeda Teuaki Ki Tangipa, who is originally from Tonga.

"I've saved a lot. I know other Pacific families are moving towards homeschooling for this very reason. I've been able to put the money towards important bills and other resources for my children."

Homeschooling

Tangipa is enrolled with Home Schooling New Zealand. It provides homeschoolers with several choices of curriculum including an Accredited Christian Education (ACE) curriculum, which is one Tangipa has chosen for her daughter.

"The ACE my daughter is on is also the same one I went through when I attended West City Christian College. As a solo parent, my faith plays a big part" she says.

There is help for Home School supervisors too.

The current annual supervision allowance rate for the first child is reportedly $796.

According to Ministry of Education data in January, 11,179 children in New Zealand were listed as being homeschooled.

What homeschooling's like

Now into her second year as a home school parent, Tangipa is positive about homeschooling. She's not tied to a desk. She likes it that her own daily activities give her daughter more freedom to learn indoors and outdoors.

Nonetheless, their daily and weekly timetable is structured.

"We start with prayer every morning and culturally, growing up, I've been able to adapt - whereas a mainstream school wouldn't."

That includes adapting their timetable to acknowledge their Sabbath.

"I shut off and kind of go off the grid from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown; where it's similar to the Islands in Tonga - where everything shuts down."

"I also work part-time, which is my escape from the kids. My parents and siblings are involved in my daughter's homeschooling, so they know what to do."

Focused help needed for Pasifika homeschool families

Tangipa would like to see more Pacific families turn to homeschooling.

At the same time, she would like to see more support from the new Government in this regard. Pasifika families for example typically have larger households and more children than other New Zealanders.

Home Schooling NZ principal Todd Roughton says there has always been a steady number of Pasifika families enrolling with them.

"The three reasons we hear time and again from families who are wanting to switch to home-schooling are the appalling academic standards in our schools, socialisation and children being proselytised in the classrooms by teachers pushing a woke social engineering agenda.

"This aspect, in particular, is something that many Pasifika families find deeply offensive."

Tangipa encourages other Pacific parents to support one another.

"I congratulate homeschoolers. It's not an easy task [and] it's for our return. We reap what we sow - as long as we keep on with the little bits, it's going to have a huge comeback."

Source

• New Zealand Herald

Taufa is the researcher for Moana Research and Evaluation.

A Treasury report has found Pasifika do up to 30 hours of unpaid work per week, including about 27,000 hours per week of organised volunteer work for community and church organisations.

But the research suggests that this figure is much lower than the actual number.

Taufa says the definition is important because the true extent of Pasifikas' contribution is unlikely to be captured if researchers or Census forms ask about hours spent on unpaid work or volunteering.

In her research, she has found a stark difference between how Pasifika see unpaid work in the home compared to how other cultures in New Zealand might.

For many Pasifika serving their communities is a natural calling and not something they would list on official documents.

"In our Pacific communities, unpaid work or the term unpaid work can sometimes be seen as offensive," Taufa says.

"Because when you associate acts of service to work, there's an assumption that the person who's doing the work wants something in return.

I think that there are a lot of other people who do unpaid work, who are not counted."

Some Pasifika families, nominate one person to stay at home to look after elders, young children or disabled family members.

Taufa believes the contribution that this person makes is immense as it allows everyone else within the house to go to work.

Still, from a New Zealand western perspective, that person is seen as unemployed.

"Without that contribution, the rest of the family wouldn't be able to do what they're doing.

So, they become almost like the glue that keeps the family together."

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• Image: stuff.co.nz

The festival featured 25 short films from a variety of genres and garnered 1 million views during the two-week period following its July 14 launch.

Maria was judged the Most Popular Film, determined by votes cast by viewers.

It centres around the loss and strain faced by a family after the passing of a young child.

The script was written by Taofia Pelesasais. Karin Williams produced the film which was was directed by Jeremiah Tauamiti.

The title role is played by Leiataua Si'ulepa who at 80 years-old is fast making a name for herself acting in New Zealand.

Maria is the matriarch of a large Polynesian family who lies bedridden and silent, unable or unwilling to speak after a long illness.

When a family crisis strikes, she gets some unexpected help as she struggles to reunite her fractured family.

Williams says the film is based on a true story from Pelesasais' own family and the passing of his niece.

He wrote the script as a tribute to the women of his ‘aiga - extended family - and their resilience.

He wanted to show the quiet strength of mothers who shoulder the burden of responsibility for elderly parents and young children, often in silence.

The film was shot in Pelesasais' home community of Rotorua, in New Zealand's North Island.

Watch the movie

Source

• RNZ
• PBS
• PBS
• FaceBook
• Image: Festival.vonline

However european mothers are far more likely to hope their children would grow up to respect cultural diversity.

This is one of the findings survey of about 7000 expectant parents of children born in Auckland and Waikato in 2009-10.

The $3 million-a-year Growing Up study has already reported on the children's health and wellbeing up to 2 years old.

The latest report, published in the Australian journal Family Matters, covers the last question asked in pre-birth interviews: "Please give us one or two sentences about the hopes, dreams and expectations you have for your baby."

Other facts that emerged include:

• Nearly half of the children identify with more than one ethnic group.
• Children up to two years of age are spending more and more time with digital media such as computers, laptops, CDs, iPods and MP3 players.
• Income drops for many families during and immediately after pregnancy, meaning there is no surplus money for things like a home deposit.
• Unplanned pregnancies account for 40% of births.
• Lack of choice in housing affects areas ranging from pre-school attendance through to continuity of healthcare and community belonging.
• Almost all the children completed their Well Child/Tamariki Ora health checks in their first nine months.
• By the time they were six weeks old, 75% had been to Plunket.
• One in three (30%) of children live in a house where their mother and another adult smokes.
• Nearly all (95%) children had their 15-month immunisations but this was lowest for the most vulnerable families.
• A quarter of our children are growing up in extended family situations.

Source

• New Zealand Herald
• Family Matters
• growingup.co.nz.
• Image: Anglican Taonga

Many of the service providers and informants stated that belonging to, and fully participating in, churches was important to their Pacific clients. This included making financial contributions to the church.

A few participants commented that some churches encourage members to give what they can. The majority of participants, however, noted that church organisations and ministers can exacerbate the debt problem. Some churches publicly announce the amounts that were donated by family groups. This places pressure on families who do not want to lose face in front of their church members, and therefore aim to give more than they can afford. Some churches, however, are sensitive to their members' needs, as the following examples demonstrate.

The research indicated that participants did not share a common view on the extent to which giving to churches exacerbated financial problems. Although there was some consensus - particularly in the Good Cents Porirua case - that giving to churches contributed to hardship, none of the families had directly found it a problem themselves.

The report found that Pacific peoples are more vulnerable to problem debt, but that there was little known about how Pacific families manage their finances.

It says that the churches can play an important role is helping Pacific Island families address problem debt by:

Education about budgeting and money management could be done by adapting styles of education, through families, schools, Pacific leaders, churches and communities. An example is the MIT "money management course" run by the pastors.

Leadership from the church and traditional leaders: Pacific churches are well positioned to lead initiatives, not just in financial literacy, but in many other aspects of a holistic approach to well-being (nutrition and health, careers and employment and education, for example). Churches have a role in encouraging families to give what they can afford, and discouraging them from competing when giving to the church.

Alternative ways of doing things: Better budgeting; ways of reducing costs (such as skyping the islands); in-kind rather than financial contributions to community.

Source

• Pacific Families and Problem Debt
• Image: Encyclopedia of New Zealand