The Ned Cook fund to fight the "P" epidemic in Tonga

The hero that was Ned “Neti” Cook…

I knew Ned for well over 20 years as a Tongan Community Leader here, an older brother figure and mentor for me. He and I were members of Akiheuho - Aotearoa Tongan Health Workers Association (ATHWA). As volunteers, our Association members would pay our own way and give up our time to travel to Tonga over the years, to deliver workshops, help the services there and try to give back to our people at home. Ned was well known and respected here in Aotearoa and to hear that he was allegedly killed in Tonga while walking home, is a great travesty to such a generous, caring and sincere man.

Ned was a founding member of ATHWA. He was a Senior Drug and Alcohol Counsellor (DAPAANZ) trained and qualified here in New Zealand. But in the spirit of “Mate Ma’a Tonga” or die for Tonga, he gave up his well-paid roles here to work for peanuts in the Kingdom of Tonga at the Salvation Army. He knew full well the risk he was taking and despite the advice of his wife and family, he went anyway. A heroic and unselfish move that eventually cost him his life trying to combat the rising methamphetamine and hard drugs trade, virtually on his own and with very little money or supports.

The “P” epidemic raging in Tonga is largely driven by the drug kingpins using Tonga as a transit point for drugs destined to feed the demand here and in Australia. This problem has been around for a long time and is rife in the Pacific with deportees from the US and other places seen as the core of the problem. Ned reached out to many of his networks here including me, desperate for support and help. I tried, but in the end I failed him. There is huge guilt because of the huge disparity I see in what we as an organisation have, and what he had in Tonga. Nothing. Just his bare hands and a huge heart. Ned died doing what he loved, helping people. Killed by those he was trying to help.

He is the real deal "Mate Ma'a Tonga" - Die for Tonga.

ATHWA want to carry on what Ned started as our inasi (portion/contribution) to carry on the work he bravely started and that eventually took his life.

My challenge to us all is this, are we really doing what matters, when it matters?

Tu'a ofa atu

Pakilau Manase Lua

Secretary ATHWA - Akiheuho

PRCT Chairman

https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/world/tonga-mourning-loss-ned-cook-warrior-in-its-war-methamphetamine