Te Ranga Tupua – Phase 1  

The Fund has invested $2.8 million for Te Ranga Tupua Iwi Collective to deliver a 15-week rapid response roll out across the Whanganui, Rangitikei, Ruapehu and South Taranaki regions. 

COVID response mobile units are led by experienced teams from iwi health providers, Te Oranganui Trust in Whanganui, Ngā Waihua o Paerangi Trust in the Waimarino, and Te Kōtuku Hauora Ltd and Mokāi Pātea Services who together have a team in Rangitikei. 

Initiatives funded: 

• Te Oranganui – Dedicated Facebook (over 2500 followers) and Instagram platforms
• NgātiRangi –rapid response mobile clinic operating in the community
• Whānau vax drive-in movie night –organised by the ‘Shot Cuz’ Rangatahi Team
• Te Kōtuku Hauora and Mōkai Pātea (Rangitīkei) –Promotion campaign on upcoming mobile, static and pop up clinics for January 2022 

Funding also enabled the purchase of assets including a van, generators, and PPE. 

Te Ranga Tupua – Phase 2 

Ministers approved this proposal worth $1.828 million to enable activities to support and protect approximately 40,000 Māori within the Whanganui, Rangitīkei Ruapehu and South Taranaki districts. 

The pūtea provided by the MCCF to Te Ranga Tupua will ensure they can continue supporting future vaccination activities and set up community hubs to support whānau needs in the community. 

The community hubs will enable a whole of rohe approach and ensure the needs of whānau in rural and remote locations are being met. The hubs will be led by kaimahi who are connected and can ensure whānau receive the relevant support they need to build long term resilience. All of this will be coordinated by a central group that will connect intelligence, logistics and administration to support central distribution and the rural hubs. 

Te Ranga Tupua collective secures $2.8 million to prepare for Covid-19 cases 

An iwi collective says they are committed to standing up their own response effort to help prepare for what they expect as an increase in COVID-19 cases among Māori when the country moves into the traffic light system. 

Te Ranga Tupua collective, made up of iwi in Whanganui, Rangitīkei, Ruapehu and South Taranaki, have secured $2.8 million of government funding to ensure support for whānau in the region, in to provide information and build preparedness and resilience to COVID-19. 

Ngāti Rangi chairperson and collective spokesperson, Whetu Moataane, said it only a matter of time before Covid-19 spread to their rohe, with Māori expected to be most impacted. 

"We need to ensure that our whānau are prepared for what this means so that we can care for and support each other when people start becoming sick," Moataane said. 

"Our major focus will be on increasing vaccinations as well as looking at how we plan for living with Covid - this includes isolation planning, testing regimes and social service planning." 

The iwi collective is working with the three DHB's in their regions and iwi providers. 

Operations lead and Ngā Tāngata Tiaki o Whanganui chief executive, Nancy Tuaine, says they will stand up another pandemic response effort in coming weeks. 

"When we shift to the traffic light framework and the country starts to open up - modelling tells us that it is Māori who will be inequitably impacted by this," she said. 

"It is likely that our hospital system will be stretched in an outbreak, and we want to support whānau to be prepared, which also means being able to look after ourselves at home." 

Tuaine says the collective effort will include establishing mobile units, working with whānau to develop their plans, and exploring options for isolation facilities. 

"We are urging our families to start having conversations as a whānau around how they will support each other’s wellbeing in an outbreak." 

Read full story: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/455946/te-ranga-tupua-collective-secures-dollar2-8m-to-prepare-for-covid-19-cases