Right number for Otara youth

Otara children playing games at the Otara Youth Action Group. Pictures / Martin Sykes

A phone number which middle-class suburbanites once tried to disown will be turned into a symbol of pride at a community event in Otara today.

274, the prefix of Otara phone numbers, raised a public outcry when the residents of the new Burswood Estate tried to get their numbers changed a few years ago to avoid being associated with one of New Zealand's poorest communities.

This summer the prefix has been taken over by six youth workers who have been funded for three months to try to defuse the gang tension which led to a murder in nearby Flat Bush late last year.

Four nights a week since the beginning of the year, they have organised music and games for young people in Otara parks, and social outings on the fifth night.

Today they are celebrating their success with a "274 youth festival" at Ngati Otara Park complete with hip-hop bands and dance crews, volleyball, touch rugby, basketball and art.

"We call our men warriors," says one of the youth workers who goes by the famous soccer name of Pele.

"We've had assistance from beautiful young ladies in our community we call diamonds.

"Where we used to get people ashamed of being in the community, we are now seeing people that are proud to be in Otara."

Volunteers have come out of the woodwork. House painter and former DJ Des Ihu, 32, gave away his pub gigs to take his music gear into the parks when he saw what was going on.

"I was involved in the stabbing they had at Flat Bush," he says. Not as a participant, but as a neighbour.

"I went up to them and spoke to them and said there's better things that you can do," he said.

"My wife and I set up a trip for them to Parakai hot pools, and from then on I started to form a relationship with the guys." The couple and their four children joined the Church of No Name formed last April by Sully Paea of Crosspower Ministries, the umbrella group for the 274 youth team.

A grandfather, Joe Iosefo, 57, saw the group pitch their tents, pool tables and cricket wickets a few doors from his home in Pearl Baker Drive in January and has supervised younger kids on the trampoline every Thursday night since, making them count to 20 before the next has a turn.

On Thursday he watched proudly as one 10-year-old grandson won an award for a rap song and a younger one showed his breakdancing skills.

Mr Paea said the younger children usually showed up first after school, and the older youths sidled in later when the sausage sizzle started. "That's the time we connect - mix, mingle, talk," he said. "Nobody wants to go home."

The Ministry of Social Development and Child, Youth and Family Services put up $135,000 for the three-month youth project, and have just approved $200,000 for a further three months. The 274 group is seeking $1.3 million to expand the project and set it up for five to 10 years, possibly as part of a broader South Auckland package in the May 18 Budget.

Lawyer Len Brown, who chairs the committee behind the group, said the Police had spent $1.2 million investigating the Flat Bush murder.

* 274 Youth Festival, Ngati Otara Park, Alexander Cres, Otara, 10am-4pm today. Tel. 027 470-9803.