There are two new cases of Covid-19 and one person has died of coronavirus in the last 24 hours. PM Jacinda Ardern said Microsoft's announcement to build a data centre in New Zealand served as a signal to the world that we are open for business.
Volunteer Whanganui manager Sandra Rickey has been part of two help groups operating at the Whanganui City Mission food bank during the Covid-19 lockdown and says there have been "a lot of laughs and some new friendships made".
"Quite a few of City Mission's volunteers are over the age of70 so my administrator, Elizabeth Sanson, and I have been there since the start of level 4 lockdown," Rickey says.
Rickey says social distancing and maintaining bubbles has been "really important".
"We both live on our own, so it's been great to get out and work through all this, it's been a hell of a lot of fun."
Volunteer Whanganui manager Sandra Rickey at the City Mission food bank Photo / Supplied
Rickey said Volunteer Whanganui was one of the few centres in the country that maintained a face-to-face registration policy, so new volunteers wouldn't be recruited until at least level 2.
"To us, face to face is absolutely essential, and we follow each person on their volunteer journey.
"I can understand why bigger centres offer online registration, but Whanganui is such a close-knit place that we really need to get to know the volunteer before they're placed in an organisation.
"Having a close relationship with our volunteers means we can put teams together really fast if needs be, just by looking through their history and seeing what they've done."
To maintain face-to-face volunteer registration, some rejigging will need to take place, Rickey says.
"We have to make sure we don't have hordes of people looking to register, and first and foremost we need to create a safe environment in our office."
"We have a computer where people can look through all the volunteer jobs, so we'll need to partition that and make sure there's plenty of hand sanitiser available."
Rickey said Whanganui had "an incredible community".
"Being kind to one another throughout all this is so important because you don't know what's going on in someone else's bubble, or where they've come from.
"You've got to be able to laugh out loud at least once a day, and it can be so therapeutic from a mental health perspective.
"I had to pre-warn everyone in our Zoom meetings that I'm a notorious cuddler, and there'll be plenty of hugs for everyone when restrictions are eased."
