Members of the Vaka Pride committee and the team at CI Tourism presented the first lot of awards to 3 of the Puna on Rarotonga last Friday the 15th of May. The first groups to receive a cash grant of $1,000 were Takuvaine, Titikaveka and the Ruaau puna. The cash grant will go towards a pre-nominated community project of their choice.

“The extra money that we receive from the Vaka Pride will go towards extensions of our village or puna cleaning, as part of Operation Namu to combat dengue” said Takuvaine Puna lead, Nooroa Roi. “Cleaning will be divided by the five Tapere (districts) in Takuvaine which are, Kaviri, Takuvaine ki Tai, Takuvaine ki Uta, Tauae and Tutakimoa and the people within those areas will clean those places to destroy mosquito breeding sites. The Vaka Pride funds will help to support that important work” added Roi.

Titikaveka Puna started a tree trimming project and have dedicated their Vaka Pride funds towards this which will help to protect passing motorists and vehicles, as well as clean potential mosquito breeding areas. However, Puna chairman Alistair Macquarie guarantees that they will keep to the ‘umbrella’ look over the roads, and just lift the canopy higher, when he reiterated that “we would like to preserve our flamboyant trees which are a landmark for the part of the island.”

“The Vaka Pride funds will be put to good use for the community” states Ruaau Puna coordinator, Elizabeth Munro. Ruaau Puna have decided to allocate their winning Vaka Pride funds towards solid waste data collection. “We plan to identify where the scrap metal, vehicles, E-waste and solid waste is located in our puna and look at ways of helping the community to remove this solid waste” stated Munro.

The next group of Puna will be presented their awards by the Vaka Pride committee and Cook Islands Tourism this Friday the 22nd of May. “There are many people out there who have appreciated what each of the Puna are doing to help the community,” added Munro as she thanked the Vaka Pride committee for their award. “This is our way of showing our appreciation to the Puna and supporting their good work” stated Vaka Pride coordinator Sieni Tiraa from Cook Islands Tourism.

This acknowledgement round of Vaka Pride will set up the Puna for the next round scheduled for June which will be a friendly and fun competition to reward those community groups who go the extra mile for their community. For more Vaka Pride information please see the Kia Orana Values Facebook page or contact Sieni Tiraa on [email protected] or +682 29435