Covid-19 coronavirus: Whanganui residents offering phone calls and home deliveries to neighbours

Castlecliff residents Lisa Lamberton and Charlotte Melser delivering pamphlets Photo / Supplied

With Whanganui preparing for the upcoming four-week level 4 Covid-19 lockdown, families Castlecliff and Gonville have started distributing flyers to letterboxes in their neighbourhoods, in an effort to maintain connections and offer help in any way they can.

Charlotte Melser, of Karewa St, said "the sense of community" in Castlecliff was "really strong", and her efforts were particularly aimed towards single parents and those without access to the internet.

"Every day I'm seeing more and more outreaches, and that's what it takes, collective thought to reach those who are most vulnerable," Melser said.

"It's all happened so quickly, that perhaps some people haven't had a chance to get plans in place.

"It's really a case-to-case basis."

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Melser said that a phone call might be all some people required. Organising cash to be left in a letterbox to collect groceries and medication was another suggestion and she added that simply going door-to-door was "now obviously not an option."

"I'd encourage people in all the different suburbs and communities of Whanganui to try a similar thing," Melser said.

Alma Rd resident Ana Fletcher offered the same assistance in her neighbourhood with her husband Paul.

Pamphlets with their phone numbers were distributed in letterboxes, and Fletcher said that some members of her community "hadn't even known about the lockdown."

• Covid19.govt.nz: The Government's official Covid-19 advisory website

"We did a little flyer from our family to offer help wherever we were needed.

"We already knew some of our neighbours were already quite isolated, so we knocked on their doors and checked in."

"There are people out there who don't have a smartphone and don't get a newspaper.

"They are already quite socially isolated and will be even more so now."

"Anyone in the Gonville area is more than welcome to get a hold of us if they need any help," Fletcher said.

Ana and Paul Fletcher are the pastors at St Peter's Anglican Church on Koromiko Rd.

Their home address is 24 Alma Rd, and their pamphlet instructs those in need in the Gonville area to put a note in their letterbox.

Their phone numbers are 021 0362743 (Ana), and 021 280 0777 (Paul).

Melser said those in her area who hadn't already received one of her flyers should refer to the 'Castlecliff news and Events' and the 'Castlecliff.NZ' pages on Facebook.