Tenei te mihi atu ki ā koutou nga hāpori o Otangarei. Ngā mihi ō te tau hau ki ā koe me tō whānau. It is our pleasure to present an overview for this Panui presenting a little of what we have been working on during the year to date.
Read the Te Hau Awhiowhio panui here.
There is no way to diminish the challenges of Covid-19 and the effects it has had on all aspects of our communities, business and institutions. Whānau have had to deal with isolation, lack of access to resources and we as a local organisation have rallied around to do our part. This was in the form of packing 20,000 Hygiene packs that were distributed to Iwi, Hapū and Maori providers around the whole of Tai Tokerau.
Through the Iwi of Ngāpuhi and our relationship with Ngati Hine Health Trust we were supported for 16 Weeks with Vege boxes that could feed a whānau of six with over 450 food boxes delivered.
Donated goods from our general public were amazing and well received. The Trust added to these contributions to provide a reliance wrap around package for whānau to kick start them back up and running. That included the provision of 140 Tamariki wellness packs which were designed and distributed by our whānau ora kaimahi and were a welcome resource for tamariki.
Supporting whānau back to the workforce has been productive with 10 new whānau commencing work in this last quarter, providing advocacy with employers and financial guidance with debtors which are all small steps to ensuring whānau keep moving forward.
One of the services that kicked in very quickly was our “Hauora” who quickly realised our whānau would require information and know there was someone at the end of a call. Their focus was solely on the wellbeing of our enrolled whānau as well as the wider community and so by being willing and creative they were able to continue supporting our whānau.
The success rate of our flu vaccinations was very important; our whanau are very susceptible to bronchial ailments and the risk of Covid-19 adding to that would be a disaster for many of our whānau. Our Hauora do an amazing job working to support our whānau to get well, stay well and be well along with many of our kaimahi and other services. Keeping whānau informed through our facebook and website did show whānau were looking for info and it was important to keep information rolling and current to ensure it was applicable to what was happening at the time.
We also launched our Papakāinga (Transitional Housing) and filled all 6 Units with whānau just as the first Covid-19 lockdown bell rang. It was a big relief for those whānau and we are happy we were able to house them during level 4.
I wont say much more as the Pānui speaks for itself however we understand that this unprecedented time is wearing on everyone and do ask that you all reach out if you are feeling the weight of managing loss of work, lack of social engagement, and strain of whānau dynamics to stop in and have a chat or give us all call and let us know if we can be of assistance.
Nga Mihi Nui,
Martin Kaipo, CEO.
