Covid-19 is a horrible beast, we have also seen some strange things that we never expected to see in Aotearoa – supermarket fights over toilet paper, our national game stopped for the season and Queen Street dead on a regular Monday morning. We are all doing our bit by staying inside and hopefully together we can beat this horrible beast.
Locked away in our houses, many of us have some extra time that we can use. It is great to see many people using the time to set up initiatives to help those that are less fortunate. At kōura, we see this as a silver lining - it proves that New Zealand is still the country we like to believe it is, we still have the great Kiwi culture of helping each other and coming together in a time of need.
Please check out the charities/initiatives below, and if you can, donate a little of your time or money to help out these worthwhile causes. Alternatively, if you feel that you know people that might benefit from these initiatives, then please point those people in the right direction.
If you have any other charities that you would like us to add to this list please let us know.
Over the coming weeks, hundreds of people are going to be in an unenviable position at the frontline of NZ's response to Covid-19. They are our doctors and allied health professionals working in hospitals, they are our ambulance crews and first responders in the emergency services, and they are the groups and volunteers providing care and support to the most vulnerable people in our communities.
We can't buy more medical equipment, or up-skill people quickly enough to help them. Instead, the Feed the Frontlines campaign is all about making life easier for these heroes by delivering free, healthy meals to them while they work tirelessly to help NZ get through this crisis.
Donate to this very worthwhile cause here.
The most vulnerable people in our community are some of the people suffering the most through this lock-down.
The foodbank project is a partnership between the Salvation Army and Countdown that will deliver food to needing families. You can either choose to donate a bundle or you can purchase individual items that can be donated to individual families. They will continue to deliver food parcels through this lockdown.
You can find them here.
For most of us our home is our sanctuary. A place we look forward to returning to every night after work. Unfortunately, there are many people for whom a home is a place of torment and violence. The sad reality is that this lockdown removes their daily escape that helps people survive.
Safe Night is an initiative run by the Women’s Refuge that allows us to help victims of family violence by providing them with a room in a refuge. A $20 donation will purchase a night’s stay for a family.
You can find Safe Night here.
An initiative that has been set up by two Auckland sisters to match vulnerable people (such as the elderly) with a volunteer to help them. The volunteer will call each day to check-in and have a chat with them to make sure they're well being is looked after. The volunteers are able to assist in delivering essential items such as groceries and medicines to their doorstep (while keeping their physical distance).
If you want to help people in need through these desperate times, then I strongly suggest that you look at these initiatives and donate either your time or a little money to help out those in our communities that are more vulnerable.
You can find Friends in Need here.
