‘Most generous heart': Founder of New Zealand's first Samoan language early childcare centre dies
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Jan Taouma co-founded the first Samoan early childhood centre in New Zealand, the A'oga Fa'a Samoa, in Auckland in the 1980s. RNZ Photo / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
One of the Auckland Samoan community's biggest advocates for maintaining the Samoan language and culture in New Zealand has died.
Jan Taouma, co-founder of the country's first Pacific Island language early childhood centre, is being remembered for her dedication and work in the ECE sector that spanned over 40 years.
She died in Auckland over the weekend, surrounded by her seven children. She was in her 77.
Known affectionately as 'Mama Jan,' Taouma helped to establish the Aoga Fa'a Samoa early childcare centre in Auckland in the early 1980s, after recognising the importance of keeping the language alive among New Zealand-born Samoans.
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