Hāpai Te Hauora backs the launch of a fresh youth vaping campaign ‘Protect your breath’

Today is the launch of ‘Protect your Breath’, the start of a three year youth vaping campaign that aims to breathe new understanding and energy into kōrero about vaping - by placing rangatahi at the heart of the mahi, every step of the way. Facilitated by the Hā Collective, who undertook a meaningful consultation process to survey students through the Tūturu schools programme and then co-design with a diverse range of rangatahi across the motu to bring ‘Protect Your Breath’ to life.

This is an important kōrero for us to understand and unpack the complexities behind youth vaping. This campaign helps uncover the reactions to vaping, impact the way young people see themselves and their future, and highlight kōrero within school communities and how we can create the right support around our rangatahi says Selah Hart, CEO at Hāpai Te Hauora

"This campaign invites rangatahi across the nation to have this conversation amongst their friends and whānau. I want to congratulate our rangatahi who have brought their creative minds and hearts to inform this innovative campaign" says Selah. "We are very impressed to see young people recognizing that it is a problematic issue amongst their peers, which has led them to lead this campaign." A campaign with catchy phrases like "Huff, Puff, Enough" or "Laters Vaper!" which are accompanied by a suite of short videos that will be streamed across various social media including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and streaming on Twitch.

’Protect your breath’ is a brilliant expression and reflects an important aspiration created by our rangatahi. "Hāpai Te Hauora encourages rangatahi to have ongoing dialogue with the support of friends, whānau, parents, and amongst the community groups they belong to. Hāpai understands that there have been concerns raised within the school community and hope rangatahi, whānau and schools can use this campaign as a tool to break down barriers. Ultimately we want to back our rangatahi, whilst at the same time delivering a strong message that vaping is not for children, it is a quit smoking tool, more appropriate for adults who smoke", says Ms Hart.

As we work towards supporting more rangatahi to quit smoking, we need to support more of our rangatahi to Protect their Breath around vaping and be part of achieving Aotearoa Smokefree by 2025. Follow the campaign on Instagram @protectyourbreathnz. For more information you can visit the website: www.protectyourbreath.co.nz