Award for Maori health promoter

Rakei Ngaia has a wise man's head on a young man's shoulders.

The 22-year-old was named Employee/Trainer of the year at the 2009 Young Achievers Awards for his commitment and dedication as Maori health promoter with Toiora Healthy Lifestyles Ltd.

Following Spotswood College and his inspiration at Te Pihipihinga Kakano Mai i Rangiatea, Rakei completed training in both health and journalism at Western Institute of Technology at Taranaki.

"Once I completed that course I knew I had something I could start approaching people with," he said.

"The people I grew up with, the environment I grew up around, I didn't see that there were equal opportunity for Maori in a lot of areas.

"Health is probably the big one, there's a bit of inequality in terms of access to opportunities that lead to better health."

Constantly upskilling and training, Rakei is currently working by correspondence towards a certificate in health promotion from Otago University.

He designs and delivers programmes addressing problem gambling and has also moved into physical activity/nutrition.

Currently he works in Taranaki schools teaching traditional Maori games like ki-o-rahi.

"They thought problem gambling would be a good starting point for me, just in terms of easing into the work because it takes quite a while to understand what you're actually doing.

"I've been doing Toastmasters, which is public speaking and personal development, but before that I did a lot of standing up and speaking at marae and various Maori forums, so I suppose I had quite a strong early development in standing up in front of people."

He adapted well, being presented at the National Problem Gambling Conference and is invited to Rotorua next year for the International Problem Gambling symposium.

Rakei was named Most Promising Worker at the 2009 Maori Problem Gambling Workforce Awards – given to him by Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia.

"It's definitely a help for the future, it really gave me a lot of drive, motivated me to go further in this line of work."

He will earn his Otago qualification at the end of 2010 and will see where his career goes.

"At the moment I like where Toiora is headed, in terms of increasing the health in Maori communities. "I really enjoy it, the freedom and the flexibility they give me to work."

Rakei thanked boss Denis McLeod, and all the whanau from Rangiatea who helped him develop his Maori background.