Enable Maaori youth to see and take up opportunities in the health workforce, thereby widening recruitment to fill staff shortages, and improving health outcomes for Maaori.
Te Rau Oranga Fund aims to encourage and enable young Maaori to pursue careers in the health system.
It was established by Waikato Hospital doctors Ruth Tan (Ngaati Hangarau and Ngaati Mutunga) and Stephen Ng, whose ultimate goals are to improve health outcomes for Maaori and generally address staff shortages in the health workforce.
Te Rau Oranga has an operation driven by Ruth and Stephen provides scholarships, career promotion and mentoring to students, starting with Te Kura Tuarua o Taniwharau-Fraser High School in Kirikiriroa Hamilton, and eventually at other local secondary schools in the Waikato.
“Te Rau Ora has a few meanings, ’ora’ is ‘health and wellness’, ‘rau’ can be ‘many’ or ‘leaf’,” says Ruth.
“The title has been gifted to us by Matua Paora, a long-serving kaiako at Fraser, who said it to mean both ‘health for the many’ and ‘a tree with many leaves of opportunity’.
Ruth says the small number of Maaori working in hospitals is a barrier to recruitment.
“You don’t see many Maaori in the workforce here at the Hospital, we are few and far between, and that is a barrier.
“We want to provide students with a ‘visual aid’ of what they can become, that they can choose a health career if they want to, to know it’s an achievable goal.”
“Te Rau Oranga Fund is intended to be a ‘by Maaori, for Maaori’ initiative. Our scholarships and outreach will provide opportunities for students and empower them to choose any career in the health sector.”
Activities for students organised by Te Rau Oranga Fund team include attending the annual Pūhoro STEMM Academy Wānanga at the University of Waikato and the Braemar Hospital Open Day, watching knee surgery at Waikato Hospital, and holiday job placements at The Hamilton Eye Clinic.
Te Rau Oranga Fund is a long-term solution to a pressing and ongoing need.
Do you want to help to remove barriers to Maaori entering the health workforce? Please donate to Te Rau Oranga Fund at the top right.
Read more about Te Rau Oranga Fund.
From Imposter to Inspired: My Journey to LIONZ 2025 - July 2025.
Opening doors to health careers for Maaori - April 2024.
Te Rau Oranga - creating ‘a tree with many leaves of opportunity’ for Maaori in health - July 2023.
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Momentum Waikato Community Foundation
12-3476-0003665-50
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