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If Whanau Tahi Director Steve Keung was getting paid by the kilometre, he’d be pulling in Microsoft founder Bill Gates salary.
But the thousands of kilometres travelled by Steve over the past few months is not for money but to advance the whanau and Whanau Tahi, the IT solution developed by Waipareira.
Steve’s travels have taken him to Hawaii, San Francisco, Seattle (for a meeting with Microsoft executives), Nevada, the Yukon and Canada as well as Los Angeles. That’s not including the thousands of kilometres driven throughout New Zealand.
And everywhere Steve goes, he’s been sharing Whanau Tahi to like-minded companies and Indigenous organisations.
I’m confident we are on the right track,” Steve said.
He and Waipareira CEO John Tamihere were fortunate to be part of the 21-strong high level Maori Health and Social Services delegation sponsored by Callaghan Innovation that visited the US in April. Others included New Zealander of the Year Dr Lance O’Sullivan, Te Pou Matakana Chair Merepeka Raukawa-Tait and CEO of Te Kohao Health, Lady Tureiti Moxon.
The greatest learning was that we are doing things in New Zealand that are ahead of the curve in what people are trying to do off shore,” Steve said.
Whanau Ora and the frameworks and tools that underpin that – including Whanau Tahi – are certainly ahead of the rest of the world.
There are solutions that are patient-centric, but the big difference with us is that they spend a lot of time reporting back to funders on how money has been spent on a particular individual, rather than on whether it is supporting the entire whanau and helping them make generational change.”
Steve said the highlight of the US trip was the presentation to the the 2015 Tribal Self Governance Conference in Nevada. It was the first time in the conference’s history that another indigenous nation was invited and presented.
We were acknowledged at the conference as leaders in the space of Whanau Ora, whanau-centric and family directed models of care,” Steve said.
Copyright © 2015, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com
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