HEAL Support through Covid19

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