How did the Waiohau community help out it's most vulnerable during the COVID-19 lockdown?

A collaborative community response

Waiohau is a small settlement nestled between Te Teko and Murupara in the Eastern Bay of Plenty. It is a community who are predominantly Māori.

When COVID-19 Level 4 lockdown was announced several members of the community mobilised themselves to form the Waiohau Community Response Group. The group also consists of representatives from the local marae, Te Kura a Rohe and Kohanga Reo. Earlier versions of the group had been formed with previous events as the cause, but nothing could prepare this group for the diversity and overwhelming support and coordination that was needed to maintain the health and safety of vulnerable whanau.

The group is led by local volunteers and supported by whanau living outside the Waiohau community, and meet weekly to discuss activities and initiatives aimed at supporting whanau need during the pandemic. A local database has been maintained to ensure up-to-date information is available when planning activities and identifying the needs of whanau during the lockdown.

Relationships built through whanau networks and previous events were rekindled and enabled the group to mobilise themselves quickly and engaging with the community. This has helped immensely in supporting whanau who are naturally too shy to ask for help and support during these times.

To date, the group have supplied over 120 kai packages to whanau in the last five weeks and they have also prepared wholesome takeaway meals to the community cooked by the group’s volunteers at the local marae and this doesn’t include the countless hours of packing food delivering the packages to the community. A Waiohau Community Response Plan has been drafted based on a development model that encompasses eight mauri that were left behind by the prophetic leader Te Kooti Arikirangi. The group have used this framework to develop a comprehensive pandemic plan that will enable the Waiohau community to protect and support its members throughout the current pandemic and in preparation for future emergency events for Waiohau and its members to recover and continue to live full and healthy lives.

The group are also contributing to a much wider iwi response that has been led by the tribal entities Te Komiti o Runa in Ruatoki and Te Uru Taumatua the post-settlement iwi entity set up by Ngai Tuhoe. They are grateful for the support from the Department of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Social Development and Te Puni Kokiri as well as local providers Te Puna Ora o Mataatua.

Recently a mobile screening unit for COVID-19 was set up in Waiohau and the team rallied whanau together to be tested.

The group have been based at Tama ki Hikurangi Kohanga Reo since the second week of lockdown Level 4 and continue to operate from there daily until the COVID-19 threat is eliminated.