Covid-19: Tales of lockdown - 'There's more despair this time'

Friday, 27 August 2021

Nurse Suli Tuitaupe vaccinates Madison Hoare at Hornby Hub in Christchurch.

Suli Tuitaupe stands outside Eastcare Health in Aranui and cheerily calls 'Talofa'.

He divides his time between a job as a practice nurse, is the team leader at Tangata Atumotu Trust, which has offered health services to Christchurch's Pasifika community for 21 years, and also runs a mobile community clinic.

‘’It is a privilege to be a navigator to get people information about food banks and other support,’’ Tuitaupe said. ‘’People here are working really positively together.’’

However, many people in Christchurch’s eastern suburbs are ‘’really struggling’’.

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Tuitaupe, centre, is a practice nurse at Eastcare Health in Aranui and is the team leader at Tangata Atumotu Trust – and also teaches online fitness sessions during lockdown. This image was taken shortly before the first lockdown.

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‘’It's a high deprivation population base, high needs in terms of mental health as well,’’ said Tuitaupe, who holds popular online fitness sessions during lockdown.

During the alert level 4 lockdown last year, many without transport were unable to access help.

Anita Jessett is a solo mother of five who lives in a Kainga Ora home with three of her children, two of whom have special needs. A fantastic baker, she says surviving on a benefit means budgeting is ''key''. (File photo, December 2020).

‘’This lockdown, although it is hitting the communities harder, there are more collaborations happening, so that is a positive. The biggest concern is connectivity,'' he said.

''We have banded together, a collective sharing together. It has been delivered well by Ministry of Pacific Peoples, as well as education, police and other organisations.'’

Tuitaupe said he had also experienced the ‘’gutless’’ racism recently criticised by Dr Ashley Bloomfield.

''I gave a gentleman his vaccine and he said oh 'are you from the Cook Islands?', I said 'no, Samoa'. The concern is that I am related to that Auckland cohort. Unfortunately it is very nasty feedback,'' he said.

Foodbank Canterbury chief executive Dr John Milligan said it is distributing five tons of food a day to the Christchurch community during lockdown. (File photo, December 2020).

Vaccine uptake had been ‘’very good’’, he said.

People without transport were offered phone consultations through their GP and pharmacies were dropping off medications to those in need.

Some essential workers are balancing the considerable challenges of homeschooling with increased workloads.

Others of limited means are unable to access online learning.

Anita Jessett, a Christchurch mother of five, shares her Kainga Ora home in Aranui with her three youngest children aged from 13 to 19, two who have special needs.

Christchurch City Missioner Matthew Mark says demand has risen, including from new people turning to the organisation for help.

Managing on a benefit was ‘’always tough’’ but she budgeted.

‘’I queue at Wainoni Pak ‘N Save and wait my turn to pick things up,’’ said Jessett. ‘’One of my kids has health needs and requires a few special things. We use a lot of milk. Food prices seem to go up during lockdown. The kids are also eating more.’’

Jessett said she had ‘’given up’’ on home-schooling.

‘’The kids are just too tired, so we are just doing simple things like reading as I'd rather they were happy,'' Jessett said. ''We don't have a laptop, so that's out for us.’’

Hundreds turned out for the City Mission Christmas lunch in Christchurch in 2020. The current Covid-19 lockdown has seen a spike in the number of people turning to the organisation for help.

This week Te Pūtahitanga o Te Waipounamu has helped Māori whānau affected by the Covid-19 rāhui (restrictions) and who need support getting kai, firewood, power and phone data.

Dr John Milligan, chief executive of Foodbank Canterbury, said it was sending ''five tons of food into the community each day''.

''Lockdown this time around definitely has a different feel,'' Milligan said. ''There's more despair.''

Volunteers at its Riccarton relief headquarters distribute food destined for landfill to more than 120 social organisations across Canterbury.

Corrin Webster, of the Hoon Hay food bank, as seen double demand double since lockdown began.

''Last year it took two to four months for the need to really hit, whereas this lockdown it hit straight away,'' he said. ''Many are working long hours, and we are close to meeting the need, we always need more, but we are close.''

Working class families are on the front line of hardship again during lockdown, and new demand for food has parcels skyrocketed.

City Missioner Matthew Mark said the Christchurch City Mission foodbank had experienced a ''noticeable jump in demand'', feeding 444 people on Thursday, compared to 190 on the Monday before lockdown.

''The biggest driver for it, we are seeing is those people who are on casual employment contracts, and they might have felt they could make it through two or three days last week but anything longer on no income is too much for them,'' Mark said.

''People that might have just been able to scrape through, potentially just having kids at home, now don't have enough food.''

Mark said demand from new customers had risen 39 per cent since lockdown began, mainly contract and casual workers with unreliable income streams.

There has also been a rise in need from those who usually work to top up their benefits but can no longer do so under Covid restrictions.

The Delta strain has added complexity for those in high risk health categories, those without transport and those simply worried about leaving home.

Harpreet Singh is the founder of Sikh Aware. Its volunteers are offering contactless deliveries of food to people who can afford to buy food but who cannot leave their homes because they are self-isolating. (File photo).

On Friday morning the Mission was sitting on just half a day’s supply of food, but community support bolstered it by enough to last through to the end of Saturday.

Mark said if people wanted to help, financial donations were most suitable until the move down to alert level 2.

''We have a buy-in power with supermarkets, so we can turn that $1 donated into $3 or $4 of food, and it's safer in this current climate, than people dropping off donated food to us.''

The situation was similar at the Hoon Hay Community Foodbank, co-ordinator Corrin Webster forced to close earlier this week after being out of food.

Webster set up the foodbank last year in response to community demand, transforming his home so he can package up food parcels for grateful families.

Normally helping between 120 to 150 families a week, Webster has seen demand double since lockdown, with demand steadily growing this week.

With little space to move at home, he hopes someone will donate a Portacom to help the foodbank in the future.

Working Christchurch mum Anna (not her real name) is one of many people living week to week, working part-time on a low wage while caring for her two-year-old daughter during lockdown.

Anna lives with her ex-husband, even though they have separated, because she can’t afford to move.

With rent, groceries, a student loan and day-care to pay for – along with delayed wages due to lockdown – life has not been easy.

She has little choice but to battle on, her life a matter of existence rater than living amid the extra layer of hardship Covid-19 has brought.

A new need during this lockdown is people who are self-isolating or in high risk groups who can afford to pay for groceries but cannot access deliveries via Countdown or other outlets.

Volunteers from Sikh Aware are delivering food nationwide to people asked to self-isolate after being exposed to the virus or who are otherwise unable to leave their homes.

Auckland-based organiser Harpreet Singh said the Sikh Aware initiative was open to all and had volunteers delivering to people in Auckland, Christchurch, New Plymouth, Tauranga, Hamilton, Wellington and Hastings – among them a woman eight months pregnant but unable to access food delivery services.

''A lot of people, in Auckland in particular, have been to places of interest and have been asked to self-isolate. These are people who can afford to get food but just can't get delivery spots at Countdown online,'' Singh said.

''They only pay for the groceries. They send us their order, we shop for them and deliver it non-contact and send them the invoice. We are like personal shoppers.''

ACCESSING HELP:

Christchurch City Mission: Free phone 0800 787 855.

Auckland City Mission: Free phone 0800 864 357.

Sikh Aware: Its Facebook page has a list of contact numbers for delivery.

Time In the Line: Check how long the wait is at your local supermarket or Covid testing station at www.timeintheline.co.nz