Whau Ethnic Collective decided to organize a Senior event with a focus on ethnic people on Sat 18 November 2023 from 12-2 pm at New Lynn Community Centre. Kay Thomas, Whau Local Board, Chair opened the event with a Karakia and welcome address. Jessica Fong, from the Community Police, gave us words of encouragement to keep communities engaged. 

The Whau Ethnic Seniors Event was a big success with over 100 registrations from various senior groups, the Hospice and the Bowel screening presented to the audience. The games, Trivia and other activities entertained and engaged the senior community, with a lovely lunch to end the festivities. 

Whau Ethnic Collective is collaborating with I Love Avondale and Woven Open Street Festival showcased Ethnic and Cultural dress attire in a street procession.

On Saturday 30 September 2023, at Crayford Street, Avondale, the members of WEC adorned themselves with traditional costumes to represent their Ethnic background waving flags of the countries of birth representing Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Philippines, India, China, Brazil, Zanzibar, and Fiji, parading in a cultural dress procession through the festival with a wave of colours, showcasing some of the ethnicities in the Whau. 

This event was a collaboration with I Love Avondale building strong cohesive communities through engagement.

A workshop and information evening on making your vote count and how the MMP voting system works were conducted on Mon 25 Sep 2023 at New Lynn main hall at 6.30pm by a team from the Electoral Commission, Justine Rickets, Jessica Wang, Elma Bi, Himanshu Chourasia and Yasmine Red. The speakers answered all our questions and showed us a fun way to learn how the MMP systems work to fill the seats in Parliament. 

The Whau Local Board Chair, Kay Thomas, stressed the importance of making every vote count to give a representation of our ethnic communities. The new Chair, Omar Fahmy thanked the committee, Nobia Fawad, Vishal Rishi, Lourdes Trainor, Karen Fletcher, and Asya Faraj for making this event possible as the first event for the new term. Vishal was the MC for the day, with a lasting comment "Do not waste the opportunity to vote which will make a difference to your communities". 

Amazing night!! ''The launch of Whau Ethnic Collective (WEC) on 29 August 2022. WEC is an initiative of the Auckland Council, Whau Local Board. The newly formed WEC committee represents a diverse ethnic blend comprising Anne Degia-Pala, Omar Fahmy, Lourdes Trainor, Nobia Fawad, Vishal Rishi, Karen Fletcher, Asya Faraj, Honglu (Holly) Zhang, Ara Simmons, and Murali Kumar, along with very capable Whau local Board support team: Rosetta Fuimaono, Pepe Sapolu-Reweti, Lisa Diggins and Zenovia Pappapetros.

WEC’s key areas of focus shall include, but not limited to, improving great neighborhoods with strong community connections, and a strong voice for the ethnic community in the Whau geographical area.  The ever-growing diversity in the Whau reflects good economic growth and with it comes the need to support these communities to thrive and add value to the Whau. WEC is confident through our muti-ethnic and multi-talented committee that we could reach out to these communities with the support of all of you.'' (Vishal,2022)

A lovely time that the ethnic community came together to celebrate Matariki with lots of food, games, kites and heaps of fun

Thank you Nobia and New Windsor Hub for organize this amazing time for families

Congratulations

AucklandPilipinoTrust, Lourdes Trainor, Dwayne Mallo and the whole team! Your successful hosting of the community celebration of the  Philippines' 124th Independence Day was a huge success! Great cultural programme involving various ethnic communities 

A lovely time that the ethnic community came together. Our kids got together from the Whau Yearly Easter Egg hunt, from lots of different backgrounds and nationalities. It was a day of a lot of fun and where we all ate a lot of calories.