How one man helped five people into their first homes
Five people bought their first house using lessons from a course to lift homeownership among Pacific people. By
During the past year, 74 people took the 10-week course aimed at lifting homeownership among Pacific people, which is followed up by a year of support.
As a result, five have bought homes and even if they had not bought a house, the others were working towards it with plans in place for savings and debt management.
The secret was support and building a genuine community, said Pasitaua Haufano, who founded Auckland company Zeducation to boost literacy and skills in the workplace and the community.
Haufano knows how lifechanging education can be. His parents worked long hours on low wages to provide for seven children, and he saw how the family struggled financially. But they kept pushing and motivating.
English was the second language at home and education was difficult. He was taken out of class for one-on-one tutoring because he was behind other students. It made him feel something was wrong with him.
‘‘I grew up with that lack of confidence. At high school I avoided subjects like maths and English, because I thought it was just for the smart kids,’’ he said.
After his bachelor’s degree, Haufano, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, spent two years in Texas serving his church mission. There he found a passion to teach but returned to New Zealand determined to start a business.
‘‘I came back home and I thought it would make sense to get into a master’s programme. And I thought, I spent all those years studying the scriptures, it should be easy. No, those textbooks were hard!’’
Despite the struggle, he graduated with a Master’s in marketing with distinction from AUT, and became a member of Beta Gamma Sigma, an academic society for top business students around the world.
In 2019, Haufano set up Zeducation and went knocking on doors to get the numbers for classes so he could win contracts. After he created a Facebook page, numbers started to pick up.
By 2020 he asked his wife, Sandra, and brother, Kalolo, to team up and within 24 months the business grew from three people to 12. ‘‘I think it definitely takes a good team and a community to make any magic happen anywhere,’’ he said.
Zeducation runs workplace programmes on leadership, literacy and numeracy, and digital upskilling for companies such as Fletcher Construction.
It also worked in the community, including running homeownership programme Makatuliki, which means cornerstone in Tongan, he said. The Ministry of Pacific Peoplesfunded course covered financial capability such as understanding compound interest, different homeownership schemes, and learning how to budget.
Another course aimed to train thousands of Pacific people and Mā ori for the tech industry, where they currently made up just 2.8% and 4% of the workforce, respectively, according to New Zealand Trade and Enterprise.
‘‘I’d love to see more people grow their skills, but grow with the company as well, where they can progress and move into those higher paying roles . . . and not be afraid to try it,’’ he said.
‘‘In a lot of industries, Pasifika and Mā ori are under-represented. I’d love to see in all industries more Pacific leaders and Mā ori leaders, and all these rangatahi (young people) to step up and really take and own those roles and make a difference for others.’’
Zeducation realised the need for ongoing support for graduates of its courses: ‘‘If they do the 10-week programme there’s probably a challenge that can be solved there. But what about two years from now? Their challenge and financial situation might be different. So what support is there? That’s where the community can come in handy.’’
Covid had worsened the inequalities that existed in Aotearoa, he said, and now rising costs such as rent, food, and fuel were hurting.
Haufano said there were not many Pacifica, and Mā ori-owned and led training providers. ‘‘So when we say, ‘Hey, here’s a programme for Pacific Islanders on financial capability [at a workplace], of course they’re going see us and say, ‘they look like us, they sound like us, we’re happy to’.’’
Haufano spoke at a financial capability conference in Wellington organised by Te Ara Ahunga Ora, Retirement Commission.
‘So when we say, ‘Hey, here’s a programme for Pacific Islanders on financial capability’ [at a workplace], of course they’re going see us and say, ‘they look like us, they sound like us, we’re happy to’.’ PASITAUA HAUFANO