Transcript
If you're ever in Mangere's town centre at 12 o clock, you'll notice that everything in the shopping centre stops - as soon as the DJ drops a track.
It's the town's open Zumba class where around a hundred people having been joining in every day for the last five years.
When Isitolo Lemoe first showed up to this class 3 years ago, he was wheelchair bound.
"At that time I have no hope to walk again and I came here and exercise. That time if I lift up my hands I come out straight like this...come like this. And I think, the Zumba is good for me!"
After multiple knee operations, Doctors told him he would still have trouble walking without regular exercise.
He says the Zumba class has turned his life around.
"Thats why I love this group. They help me to walk again. I call this group - its my family."
While these locals are hoping to get fit and lose weight, in this town it's a battle against the odds.
Right next door is a fast food takeaway shop, a bakery and a couple of liquor stores.
Outside the town centre you'll see McDonalds and KFC and Carls Junior just across the road.
Pepe Tufuga-Pati says eating healthy here is a challenge for many.
"I always go and cheer them up. Come and do something for yourself. Not just only come and stand in front of all those shops, eat chicken and chips. Stop eating takeaway! I'm honest. Like the one next to me? She's diabetic but she likes eating takeaway. So she said to me, good idea sis. I'm so happy of you."
With the largest group of the country's Pacific population residing right here in the Mangere-Otahuhu local board area, the health struggles in this neighbourhood show a glimpse of what New Zealand's pacific population have been battling for years.
A decade ago, government figures showed that Pacific adults had the highest rate of obesity in the country at 62 percent.
And despite various government initiatives to tackle the epidemic, that rate has risen to nearly 70 percent among Pacific adults - that's double the obesity rate of New Zealand's general adult population. [ http://www.health.govt.nz/nz-health-statistics/health-statistics-and-data-sets/obesity-statistics]
A report looking into Pasifika health after the last census indicated the health sector's response to the health needs of Pacific peoples was largely inadequate.
Zumba instructor Pila Tomu is driven to see the situation changed in his community.
"I like the people to come to see the life and all day to exercise. I like that to help the people. You know, see the fat is going. Now I see, maybe it's a one month, two month, the kilo is coming down."
The diabetes rate among Pasifika hasn't changed over the last ten years and remains around three times the diagnosis rate for New Zealand's total population.
Kalolaine Kaufusi is the organiser of the Zumba class and also runs a monthly nutrition and cooking class in the town centre aimed at tackling obesity and diabetes in the community.
"So how do I cook the corned beef? I'll just boil the corned beef and drain the fat and then cook it with the vegetable or the cabbage or spinach or something like that. So you dont need any fat in there."
But her healthier style of cooking hasn't always gone down well with locals.
"They told me, you just take away the flavour. And I said yeah, its good because we can taste the fat its nice and salty but end up when you finish eating, you just sit around watch TV and do nothing. And this is how its hanging down there and this is the flavour, and this is the flavour. This is how the fat and the starch grow and this is how you get diabetes."
A spokesperson from the local medical clinic says that on top of battling obesity and diabetes, many can't afford appointment fees with a doctor and often dont have transport to get to the clinic when they need to.
Mangere ranks in the highest deprivation bracket in the country with socio-economic factors that are continually driving its poor health statistics.
But that's not stopping the locals in this town. Despite having had no council or government funding behind them, Ms Kalo and her family hope the volunteer-run Zumba and nutrition classes will help heal their community.
"We just sacrifice our family, our needs to come and do this job for the people and I know, heaps of them it's important their life, so our blessing is coming from God."
