Ko‘ai Mātou | About Us

Kia Orana and welcome to Ora‘anga Tūmanava

Ora‘anga Tūmanava is a Cook Islands partnership programme that evolved from the Pacific Science for Health Literacy Project (2013-2024). Ora‘anga Tūmanava brings together expertise from education, health and science to promote actions in schools, health and the community to prioritise lifelong health and wellbeing.

Ora‘anga Tūmanava prioritises sustained integration of evidence-based learning programmes and continual updating of education resources for schools, enabling children and adolescents to act on learning to promote lifelong health and wellbeing.

For the community, we offer health promotion resources that highlight the importance of prioritising the wellbeing of our tamariki, adolescents, parents-to-be, mothers and their pepe as an essential contribution to the future.

For Education and Health Professionals, we offer ongoing professional development and learning resources.

• Awareness of the importance of health and wellbeing for pregnant mums, pepe, tamariki and adolescents for lifelong health and wellbeing.
• Awareness of the importance of adolescence as a life stage where understanding and development of behaviours that will influence lifelong health and wellbeing are established.
• Sustained integration of evidence-based learning programmes in schools that enable adolescents to understand the complex web of factors contributing to health, and act on their learning.
• The need to listen to and use evidence from education, health, science, local, traditional and community knowledge to enable sustainable development.
• Capability development supporting education, health, science and the community to work together to support and monitor sustainable development by Cook Islanders for Cook Islanders.
• Gradual improvements in the noncommunicable disease risk profile for future Cook Islands adults and their potential offspring by encouraging sustainable actions that focus on pregnant mums, pepe, tamariki and adolescents.

Ora‘anga Tūmanava is a partnership between education, health and science communities in the Cook Islands and New Zealand.

The Cook Islands Ministries of Education and Health bring leadership, experience, and regional connectivity relative to education and health in the context of the Cook Islands. 

Ora‘anga Tūmanava evolved from the Pacific Science for Health Literacy Project (2013 – 2024). This collaboration between our Ministries of Education and Health and the University of Auckland’s Liggins Institute established the model of partnership through which we developed the Cook Islands specific programmes which underpin the sustained actions we see today in schools and health teams across the Cook Islands.

Our relationship with the University of Auckland, funded by the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Partnerships for International Development Fund, supported the development of Ora‘anga Tūmanava.

We acknowledge that without the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s trust and support as a key development partner, this project would not have been possible.

While our collaboration funding ends in 2024, this does not mean we end the relationship. The University of Auckland, via the Liggins Institute, will continue to be valued as trusted partners who share our vision and whose doors remain open for Ora‘anga Tūmanava.