This month we had the pleasure of sharing experiences, learnings, and connecting with our like-minded friends from Purple Mai’a Foundation, at their Oʻahu offices in Hawaii.
Purple Maiʻa is a technology education non-profit which shares a lot of similarities with us, as they too strive to empower the next generation of culturally-grounded, community-serving tech makers and problem solvers. We have been in monthly Zoom conversations with Purple Mai’a for over a year, and this was a great opportunity to come together in-person.
During our time together, we were able to chat about various programmes, such as Purple Mai’a’s Hiapo Workforce Development Program (led by Victor Lee, Program Director), which is similar to NZALI’s tech education pathway. Insightful information was gathered and shared, as we continually strive to improve our programmes of work for our learners and community.
Lead by our tutor Shelley Akuhata, who joined us by Zoom, our Chief Operating Officer, Nazli Effendi, presented Nicola Brodie, Purple Mai’a Director of Operations, with a Pīkōau iti sculpture as a symbol of our continued friendship, collaboration, and honouring of our cultures.