Health NZ-Te Whatu Ora launched the programme on Saturday with a community pop-up event outside The Warehouse.
An inflatable bowel was used to teach people about the signs and systems of bowel cancer.
Information in the form of pamphlets were also handed out by staff.
The goal was to reinforce the importance of bowel screening, Health NZ Southern bowel screening programme manager Emma Bell said.
"The beauty about screening programmes is that they can pick up signs of cancer before it actually turns into cancer."
The screening tests look for traces of blood in a person’s bowel motion.
"It could mean that there could just be piles or a fissure or it could mean there’s a polyp or a cancer that needs further investigation.
"The idea of screening is it picks up bowel cancer or polyps early, then they can often be successfully treated."
They also partnered with WellSouth and the Oamaru Pacific Island Community Group to deliver testing kits to priority populations last week.
The large Pasifika and over-60s population in Oamaru made it a key location for the initiative, Mrs Bell said.
She urged anyone who received a testing kit to "please do it".
"It’s free. You do it at home — it’s really easy."
Another common symptom is a change in normal bowel habits across several weeks.
Anyone who notices these symptoms should not wait for a screening test and instead go see a doctor, she said.
More than 370 cancers were detected in the Southern district since the national bowel screening programme was launched in the region in April 2018.
Nationally, almost 1.2 million people have completed and returned a test, resulting in more than 35,000 colonoscopies and the detection of more than 2500 cancers.
Bowel screening test kits are delivered every two years to people aged between 60 and 74.
