Te Wairua O Tika Connectivity Program
INFORMATION SHEET
Kia ora tatou
HEALnz is a registered charity based in the rural Far North that supports
trauma survivors. Our people are trauma therapists and survivors and throughout the
COVID19 lockdown we were an essential service who tried to establish connections
through phone and video link with the people we care for throughout the Far North. This
made a significant difference for the trauma survivors we work with to receive support
throughout the crisis, anchoring them and their whanau. A challenge that the COVID19
crisis revealed early on to us in the Far North was that many of the at-risk trauma
survivors in our community had no access to smartphones to connect to their
community. This increased their sense of isolation, loneliness, and distress throughout
the crisis due to their lack of access to these resources. Our challenge was to see if we
could increase their support because living in poverty should not limit our ability to
connect and be supported at the most challenging of times. With the support of the
Community Awareness and Preparedness Fund by the New Zealand government we
purchase smartphones with data for a month and had them directly delivered to people
to avoid any virus transmission. We worked with local medical centres and the Far North
CIB to reach more trauma survivors who required this support. We found that the
phones meant more to our community that just being a resource, we found that it
anchored people and made them feel that their community and government cared for
them through the crisis, true manaakitanga in action! The COVID19 crisis had revealed a
significant gap in resources in our community and we managed to secure funding to
provide ongoing support to the vulnerable trauma survivors in our community.
The criteria are:
1. A trauma survivor
2. A resident in the Far North.
3. On the poverty line and unable to source themselves.
4.An agreement is signed that the phone is used to increase support.
5. Resides in an area that has Vodafone cell phone coverage
Arohanui
HEALnz
Commentaires