Fiva faiai are words that Percy Tilialo has known since her childhood growing up in Samoa, the words translate to meningitis, a nasty and often deadly disease.

Tilialo is the outreach navigator for Pasifika health organisation Tangata Atumotu Trust, which runs a meningococcal vaccination programme at Ashburton College, and she said the earlier the vaccination message reaches Pasifika families the better.

That message is embedded in two newly launched colouring books, aimed at young children, with text in the Samoan and Tongan languages.

"The book will be a good reminder for parents about vaccination," Tilialo said.

"And I love that they're targetting the younger children."

The books in the two Pasifika languages add to the English and te reo Māori versions already put out by the Meningitis Foundation.

The Foundation aims to eradicate the disease in New Zealand by 2030, and its chairperson Gerard Rushton previously told the Ashburton Guardian that they're acutely aware of what he sees as the discriminatory nature of the accessibility of the fully funded meningococcal B vaccine for young people.

“Our biggest at-risk group now is adolescents,’’ he said.

“We’re fighting to get the access widened for them.”

Teenaged Pasifika and Māori, who are more vulnerable to the disease, with many living in close quarters in their home environment, would have to somehow come up with $600 to get vaccinated, according to Rushton.

Yet, the vaccine is free for young people in what he describes as the privileged position of living in halls of residence at universities.

Foundation Trustee Claire Rushton said vaccination inequality is especially worrying in a community such as Ashburton College which has the fastest growing number of Pasifika students in the country.

She sees the colouring books as a good way to reach them when they're younger.

"The books are a fun way for children to learn that the vaccine is safe," she said.

One of the book's messages is showing that the meningococcal vaccine is a way of protecting yourself, just like a bike helmet is a form of protection.

The Foundation has printed its first run of 2000 Samoan and Tongan language colouring books, thanks to funding from local insurance company Cartwrights and its partner Steadfast.

"We like to support the community and it's a way to show our recognition of Ged and Claire's work," managing director Andrew Cartwright said.

The Meningitis Foundation got the idea for the colouring book from a similar one that's available in Turkey.

"We spent a year re-doing the book, so it would be something kiwi families could relate to," Claire Rushton said.

She said Pasifika communities were consulted and the translations were coordinated by Pauline-Jean Luyten, who's of Tongan heritage and is on the New Zealand Rugby Board and the South Canterbury Rugby Board.

That involved tweaks in some of the illustrations to make them more kiwi, like having a dad doing the vacuuming, wearing a pair of shorts.

The colouring books are available at the Ashburton Tangata Atumotu Trust office, at Cartwrights Insurance and Mortgage Brokers, and the plan is to also distribute them through early learning centres.

Since September 2025, all children under five years of age can access the fully funded meningococcal B vaccine, with the government's drug-buying agency Pharmac anticipating that up to 77,000 more youngsters could benefit from the change.

By Julie Moffett