(Picture caption: Niue youths turn out to get vaccinated at the community event held in Auckland recently.)
When COVID-19 hit New Zealand’s shores back in 2020, Maliaga Erick – a no-nonsense, go-getting staunchly-Niuean pillar of the community heeded her call to action.
“I felt we needed to do something to help the Niuean community, so my son Hayden a Registered Nurse, and nurse vaccinator Lorma Kumitau and I began talking about what we could do,” Maliaga explains.
Maliaga is the Pacific Cultural Advisor for Wharaurau ICAMHS and Addiction when she is not volunteering to help her community, she has a knack for bringing people with her once she has something in mind.
Within a matter of days, the trio had leading Pacific health expert Dr Collin Tukuitonga advising them, along with a team of Niuean nurses and doctors volunteering to assist at organised Niuean community vaccination events.
Last year, Maliaga and the Niuean community hosted three multiday events in Mangere, Auckland, in September, October and November, which attracted the public in their numbers to get vaccinated, as well as attend a community event filled with dancing, music, food and laughter.
The community has recently completed their fourth event - Huki Puipui a Niue Max Vaccination Drive - with funding from the Ministry for Pacific Peoples’ (MPP) Pacific Aotearoa Community Outreach – Omicron Response Fund.
“We vaccinated a further 183 in our community at the event, with a lot of those children getting their first dose,” Maliaga says.
The Niuean organisers used $15,000 funding from MPP to purchase petrol vouchers, Omicron care packages, Warehouse vouchers for youths, mobile phones and ice blocks for children and families along with paying for the DJ at the event.
“We provided vouchers to those who attended, and as prizes – yes, it was an incentive to get the community to get vaccinated, but it is also part of the Niuean culture.
“It is fakatautonu – where we acknowledge peoples’ time they have taken to come to our event – if you visit my house, I give you something.”
Maliaga says the most important thing from the vaccination events, apart from protecting people against COVID-19, were the conversations which got underway among the Niuean community.
Issues of concern included a lack of targeted appropriate information for the Niuean community about COVID-19 but also services available to Pacific people.
“During the lockdowns, I had so many people coming to me for help, as they had to go through so many hoops to access information and services – such as basic necessities but also digital devices for their children who could not attend school.”
As the pandemic evolved, and Omicron reached New Zealand, the needs started to change – and now there is more demand for self-isolation care packages and education around living with the new variant and how to access support.
The Ministry has recently opened round two of the Pacific Aotearoa Community Outreach – Omicron Response Fund, which Maliaga says the Niuean community would like to apply for funding to possibly support an education day, and more Omicron support care packages.
Round two of the fund is designed to enable Pacific communities to absorb and adjust to the impacts of COVID-19 through innovative, holistic, and, most importantly, Pacific-focused initiatives and solutions.
This will empower Pacific communities to embed and strengthen their own innovative solutions, interventions and initiatives to create opportunities that build resilience to better respond to future impacts of COVID-19.
Successful applications will receive funding to support initiatives that enable:
Visit the MPP website to apply by June 30, 2022.