Cook Islands Rugby Union outreach team is delivering rugby values and healthy living education to students in Aitutaki, focusing on leadership and community development.

The Cook Islands Rugby Union (CIRU) outreach team is in Aitutaki this week, continuing their development and the healthy living educational programme in the Pā Enua.

The team is led by CIRU women’s development programme coordinator Harriet Tuara, alongside Mahana Sijp and Wallace Aroita.

On day one on Tuesday, the team held a Rugby Rising Values Programme at Araura College and the Healthy Living Programme at Te Ka’a-roa Adventist School.

“It was a joy meeting new faces, sharing knowledge, and empowering the future leaders of our country,” CIRU said.

Yesterday, they were at Araura College, going over the key values of World Rugby and how to demonstrate these values within the sport.

According to the team, the students of Araura College have been amazing and excited to participate in these workshops, showing great leadership skills and teamwork.

This class, with about 30 students, is larger than those on Mauke and Mitiaro, the other two islands the team had visited. The CIRU team is pleased to see the same level of energy and passion for learning.

Respect, passion, discipline, integrity and solidarity have been the key areas of focus for the team, ensuring that students not only see or read about these important values but also understand their meanings.

The broader goal and purpose of these workshops are to foster the development of Pa Enua children, enabling them to become high-performance athletes if they choose that path, and ultimately to serve as positive role models within their communities, demonstrating strong support and sportsmanship.

“Today’s (Wednesday) session was a reflection on what we’ve learnt on day one (Tuesday), and why it is important to have values in our lives, and by doing that, we took the kids through some exercise to help identify what these values look like, in rugby, in school and in life,” the team said.

“Following that, we got the students to create their own leadership compass that help them think about what type of leader they wanted to be remembered as, what their big dreams are or goals and ambitions in life are, and what steps they need to take to get closer to those dreams.”

According to CIRU, all of these key values are important and help build a foundation for understanding identity and values.

“This opportunity would not have been possible if it weren’t for other like-minded businesses and individuals who support the team.”

The team is humbled and blessed to continue with this programme, thanks to the support from Air Rarotonga, Vodafone Cook Islands, Kōrero o te 'Ōrau, Te Marae Ora Ministry of Health, Cook Islands Building Supplies, Bank of the Cook Islands and Oceania Rugby.