With funding from Te Puni Kōkiri this week, Waipareira can get to those hard-to-reach whānau scattered throughout West Auckland.

A Māori Communities COVID-19 Fund package has been directed to providers via the Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency (WOCA) to support the Māori vaccination uptake.

Waipareira Social Impact director Awerangi Tamihere told Waatea News the extra resourcing means Māori providers are finally able to implement whānau approaches that work.

“There is not one way to vaccinate our people. They all have very different reasons and different thinking as to why they want to get vaccinated, why they are hesitant to get vaccinated and so you must have multiple different strategies in your toolbox to access them, work with them to ensure our uptake of vaccination increases,” she told Waatea News.

Waipareira has been engaging whānau on multiple fronts to ensure cultural needs are met. Waipareira kaimahi have held max vaccination events, opened major vaccination centres, gone door-to-door, utilised social media, run mobile clinics as well as spearheading the popular Fight For Your Whakapapa campaign.

Since March, WOCA partners in Tāmaki Makaurau through Te Pae Heranga o Tamaki have delivered more than a quarter of a million vaccinations, including 112,000 (and counting) by Waipareira.

Waipareira is also supporting the vaccination uptake of Māori across the North Island.

Last week 70 Waipareira kaimahi and four mobile units were in Northland supporting the Te Tai Tokerau whānau vaccination uptake. More than 2900 whānau were vaccinated during that week – the biggest uptake the Northland DHB had experienced in recent weeks.

Photo Credit: Whānau Waipareira