Northland to get extra $4.243m for Māori Covid resilience and vaccinations

Associate Health Minister Peeni Henare with vaccinators at Te Hau Awhiowhio o Ōtangarei Trust last year. The Government has another $4.243m for Māori Covid resilience and vaccinations in Northland

Five Northland Māori organisations are getting $4.243 million from the Government to help build Covid resilience and continue to support vaccination uptake.

A further 12 proposals totalling $15.7m were approved by Ministers through the Māori Communities Covid 19 Fund (MCCF) for the same reasons.

Te Tai Tokerau recipients of the funds are Te Hiku o Te Ika Iwi Development Trust ($2.388m), BDO Northland Ltd, on behalf of Nga Pai kitea ($1.15m), Te Runanga o Whaingaroa, on behalf of Te Kahu o Taonui ($302K), Te Kupenga Hapū ($265K), and Pawarenga ($138K).

In the final two months of last year, the Government approved a total of $72.08m across 85 contracts - $53m of which has already been paid out. Northland received roughly $7.7m of the approved funding.

Since the fund was established the Māori first dose vaccination rate increased from 69 to 90 per cent and the second dose from 49 to 86 per cent for people aged 12 and over.

In Te Tai Tokerau 86.6 per cent of Māori are part vaccinated and 82 per cent are fully vaccinated of the total 50,488 people eligible.

All proposals were reviewed by the Senior Officials Group from Te Puni Kōkiri, Te Arawhiti and the Ministries of Health and Social Development. An Inter-Agency Panel of officials also ensured proposals complement the $204m Care in the Community response.

Contracts focus on areas with low vaccination rates and high Māori populations in rural, isolated, and low socioeconomic areas. This includes whānau living in poverty, unemployed, without permanent housing, and needing support for mental health disorders.

They directly support whānau, hapū and hapori to build Covid Protection Framework (CPF) resilience enabling leadership within communities and tailoring support across a region to suit each community.

Services include education and awareness, staff safety, protecting whakapapa, community facilities and engagements and communications.

They range from using marae and iwi properties to support their response, upskilling community members to become vaccinators, mobile vaccinations, vaccination events, incentives and developing material to target high-need groups.