About DigiTautua.

Eteroa Lafaele was the winner of the Prime Minister’s Pacific Youth Science (STEM) Award, but says she can’t be a technology advocate for Pasifika if her own people don’t have devices.

DigiTautua is the brainchild of Eteroa Lafele and Timoti Wharewaka. It came as a response to the need expressed by the Pacifica Community as a result of the COVID19 lockdowns and the educational inequities arising from a lack of devices and internet in the homes of their young people.

“The need is significant, we have stories where families that have six in their family and they only have one device, and usually that one device is their mum or dad’s device, and they have to do school after school-hours because their parents have to do their nine to five and then from five to probably ten at night they have to do school.

Some of the families we give our devices to are those that are in emergency homes, and if a family had to choose either $400 or $500 for rent or a laptop, they would choose rent,”

Stories like these are why Ete and Tim started Digitautua, tautua meaning ‘service’ in Samoan.

DigiTautua’s First Cohort is in South Auckland, in partnership with the Otara Kai Village and OMGTech!, where over 700 students and counting have put their hands up for these devices. This Started in August 2021.

The Second Cohort, which started in November 2021, is the Porirua and wider Wellington community where she was born and raised.