Council funding will help curb suicide risk for Taranaki māmā
A kaupapa Māori antenatal education service says a $5000 grant will help ease distress and suicide amongst new mothers.
Hapū Wānanga ki Taranaki – which runs two-day courses to prepare whānau for labour, birth and parenting – has a new office in Bell Block and asked New Plymouth District Council for $5000 to help with the fit-out.
The shopping list ranged from a vacuum cleaner and washing machine to a fridge-freezer and printer.
The wānanga are based in tikanga and mātauranga Māori, including Māori birthing practices.
Hapū Wānanga’s kaiwhakahaere kaupapa (programmes manager) Aroha Healion told the council’s Te Huinga Taumatua committee that staff previously worked out of their homes and cars, marae and libraries.
By helping to equip their new office the council grant would underpin crucial work on difficult issues, Healion explained.
“The leading cause of death for new māmā in Aotearoa is suicide. It's so distressing.
“Absolutely I see we're able to provide that support to help in those suicide statistics, here in Taranaki.”
In 2017, before Hapū Wānanga was established, only 11 Māori mums attended any antenatal education in Taranaki.
Healion said the new organisation beat that tally in two months in 2018, and since then had helped 1307 whānau.
“We're getting referrals left right and centre at the moment from the likes of Oranga Tamariki, the hospital, midwives.”
Wānanga cover breastfeeding, safe sleep, immunisation, dental health, quitting smoking “and all sorts of things pertaining to the hauora and well-being of our māmā and our whānau.”
Although based in tikanga, the course is not just for Māori.
Healion says all sorts of whānau attend, particularly from other indigenous cultures, and some whanau fly in from Australia.
Te Huinga Taumatua's meeting last week approved the grant of $5000 from the Whanake Grant fund, which supports programmes or services that meet whānau, hapū and iwi aspirations.
Other successful applicants included Mahia Mai a Whai Tara, which got $5000 for a community garden for kaumātua in Manutahi.
Te Whiringa o Mutunga won $5000 for a ringawera course for kitchen workers and Ngāti Rāhiri Hapū was granted $8,300 for a narrative preservation project.
Manukorihi Pā Reserve had applied for $18,000 a year for three years to maintain the Tangaroa Stream restoration.
The entire Whanake Grant annual fund is $50,000 and committee members led by councillor Gina Blackburn weren’t inclined to tie up a third of it for three years.
Instead Manukorihi got the first year funded, with an invitation to re-apply again next year.
nā Craig Ashworth craig@tekorimako.co.nz
LDR is local body journalism hosted by Te Korimako o Taranaki and funded by Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa and Irirangi te Motu
Comments