EaseUp - Rina Kopu
Kia Orana my name is Rina Kopu, and my family is from the Cook Islands. I’m a mum of 5 adult children, and I have twenty-three grandchildren. Unfortunately, 3 of my grandchildren didn’t make it, and one of them passed away 4 years ago. I have lived experience through mental health and stress because of post-traumatic stress disorder due to my forty-three years struggle with depression. I’ve recently found out I have high levels of anxiety, which I used to blame on my asthma. This was until I had a conversation with my manager where I told him I think I have anxiety because my asthma pump doesn’t work. This is after telling my doctors, but it seems like they don’t understand what I’m trying to say.
My own background with The HEART Movement, since it’s all about building healthy relationships in Tāmaki. Supporting and educating on domestic violence prevention in our community.
I am currently a full-time peer-support worker for EaseUp working alongside our rangatahi, our BEAUTIFUL young people. I started off part-time in October last year, and it was quite strange because I started during lockdown. I think on my third day, and my team remembers me saying out loud that I wanted to be on full-time… and I got full-time employment in March. In a sense I manifested it.
The reason why I enjoy supporting our young people is because they remind me of my grandchildren. Whenever I go to Tauranga, my grandchildren ask me, “What do you do [for living], Nana?” and I tell them that, “I support young people, like yourselves.”, and I treat them like my own grandchildren, because a lot of our young people need someone to listen, someone that doesn’t judge or give them advice. If you tell them to do something, they’ll do the opposite. With EaseUp, it’s clinical research and lived experience in partnership to give hope to our beautiful rangatahi. With myself having lived experience as a peer-support person, I offer options to our young people and let them make their own choices. All we do is support them in making their goals and dreams a reality.
The HEART Movement and EaseUp make connections in the community. EaseUp focuses on working alongside our youth, meanwhile HEART gathers the community to share resources and knowledge to help find solutions.
Honestly, I love everything about The HEART Movement. I love the culture, I love the togetherness, I love how we can talk about anything. I love the Women’s Koru Group which I’m proudly part of and happy to host when I can. It depends on what’s happening on that day, there will be a subject we discuss, every Friday morning. We talk about anything in a safe space for women to have safe conversations with no judgement, no advice.
We made a video to share our experiences with EASE-UP, and it’s cool because we talk about anything without judgement. We all listen and we support one another. We have different team-building events and trainings (hopefully one with Peter Thorburn soon!).
Our passion is to help our young people over at EaseUp. Building connections to support our rangatahi, to make them stronger. Stronger, together.
I’m currently in Christchurch for a conference, and on Wednesday I went to a Pasifika Panel and next minute, I was a last-second speaker. I let the Spirit guide me on what to talk about, and it was about stigmas and labels placed on our Pacific people. Being labelled, judged, and mistreated, is something my own whānau has gone through. This is why I’m grateful for an amazing manager supporting me. We all need to be treated fairly, and equally. It doesn’t matter who we are. Speak up, and always speak from your heart.
