Care, Connection, and Community Health Workers at MALO
As the only all-Tongan-speaking community health worker (CHW) team in California, the 10 MALO CHWs have promoted the health and wellbeing of their community with genuine love and care for each individual since the team’s founding in 2021. Seini Soakai, a MALO CHW, explains that her work “comes from the heart.” Many of MALO’s CHWs express that they have grown up learning the Tongan values of love, support, and family and instilling them in their children today. Maikolo Soakai, another CHW, says, “Tongans, we’re caregivers.” In addition to caregiving, CHWs help foster a unified community that is open and comfortable. Sepi describes her role as a CHW as showing up for her community and listening by providing “a shoulder to lean on or an ear to listen.” Furthermore, their positions as integral community members mean they have a mutual connection with those they serve. Annie Vave describes the connection as “really natural for [her] to speak with [her] community. No one is a stranger to one another. [They] are connected some way or another through family ties.”
The CHWs start by listening to understand an individual’s life and potential needs. With that context, CHWs can then point them towards helpful health information and resources. Annie Vave explains that she treats any community member as a family member:
We follow that with a regular question or a regular conversation, and that’s when they’re like: “So how was your family?” You know, and then they’ll be like, “Oh, well, so-and-so is sick,” and like, “Okay, do you need any doctor resources?” So that’s how we kind of try and interpret our CHW role, but having it naturally, as it should be, right? If you don’t want to be like, “Oh, I just want to collect your data. Are you sick?” “No. Are you vaccinated?” You know, and I definitely do approach our community members like that.
Through shared language, MALO’s CHWs connect to their community on a deeper level, allowing them to advocate for the health of their fellow Tongan Americans. According to Lolofi Soakai, Executive Director and Founder of MALO, CHWs provide crucial translations because there is a lack of health resources in the Tongan language. In the past, Tongan Americans in Southern California have not received health information and explanations in the Tongan language. MALO’s CHWs address this issue through translating and explaining health information for their neighbors and relatives, reducing fears surrounding healthcare.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, MALO leaders saw a need in their community for health workers that spoke Tongan. The CHW program at MALO was born out of this observation. They translated resources about the disease into Tongan and helped people access the COVID-19 vaccine. CHWs were understanding of the vaccine hesitancy within their community. Lolofi details the impact of CHWs at vaccine clinics:
So it’s been really neat to have a CHW team that actually speaks Tongan and so we’re able to be on the sites for vaccine clinics. And so when people are hesitant or like they just don’t want to go inside, one of us from the MALO team can speak Tongan and gets them closer and closer to feeling comfortable getting the vaccine.
The process of achieving MALO’s goals takes learning, collaboration, and patience. CHWs spend time engaging with community members and collaborating with each other as well. Annie explains how being a CHW is a learning experience: “I believe we’re dreaming and creating goals as we build and learning as we go as well. And if we hit mistakes, it’s great because that’s the only reason we’re going to learn.” CHWs continue to try creative ways to promote health and health education. Their work is holistic, accounting for language barriers, cultural practices, religious practices, and other factors that determine health outcomes. Most importantly, the CHWs and MALO as a whole foster a welcoming space for community engagement and connection.
As the MALO leadership team looks to the future, they hope to train more community members to become CHWs and expand the current strong CHW team. They aim to create a CHW training program that is specific to Tongan Americans and their health, so that MALO leaders can train CHWs rather than trainers who are not familiar with Tongan culture or language. Furthermore, ‘Asena Taione-Filihia, Director of Development at MALO, aims to see MALO’s efforts benefit younger generations: “We’re committed to making a better future for our families and children.”
While this piece aims to highlight the voices of CHWs at MALO, it offers only a small glimpse into their valuable perspectives and impressive work. Special thank you to Lolofi and ‘Asena for organizing these conversations and allowing us, Health Bridges Health Advocates, to listen in.
