Mask Distribution a Community Effort
Change Agent and Service and System Designer at Tāmaki Regeneration Company (TRC), Tara Moala put a message into the HEART Change Agent Messenger Chat asking for help to get masks and information out, and the response was overwhelming! TRC recognised they had a role to play and were able to access some funds to support the initiative and made available 10,000 disposable masks that had been provided for the Tāmaki community by The Ministry of Social Development.
The Kai Collective then contributed an additional 2,500 masks from their own stash! Health and safety briefings took place over zoom calls that were attended by everyone involved - from the packing crew, to drivers, to those delivering to letterboxes.
Envelopes, mask information sheets, snacks for packers and HEART flyers were designed, printed and gathered in a short time frame by everyone pitching in. Even one of our local schools - Tāmaki Primary contributed by printing off all of the HEART flyers with 24 hrs notice!
With the government's move towards recommending the wearing of masks in public, a local group quickly formed in August, to help distribute disposable masks to the 2,500 Tāmaki Housing Association homes in our Tāmaki community. This group included our very own Change Agents, Organisations and Individuals that are all living and connected to Tāmaki!
It was a big task but a necessary one that needed careful coordination to uphold health and safety during alert level 3 and to coordinate the many people who put up their hand to help.
It took two days for the packing of envelopes to happen, starting on the morning of Saturday 22nd August at Faith Baptist Church in Panmure. A team of ten packers, even including two of our local Kaumātua Margaret and Tom Ngapera from Faith Baptist Church, worked tirelessly from 9:30am to 4:30pm to pack the envelopes. Two drivers then picked up the packed boxes of envelopes and delivered them out to 14 x Change Agent whānau bubbles for them to deliver out to specific letterboxes in their neighbourhoods. We were also able to call on some TRC staff to join in the ranks!
From there it was a matter of feet pounding the pavement in the neighbourhoods across Tāmaki. As people received the boxes of envelopes and delivered them out to the letterboxes, a stream of positive messages and photos flowed into the ‘mask distribution’ messenger chat group. Those delivering talked about how it was nice to be out saying hello to people in their neighbourhood and to be out with their kids who were helping. It was a real community effort, with local community members responding quickly and without hesitation to help others.
One Tāmaki Housing Association resident got in touch to say “Thank them very much, it meant that I could walk down to the shops.”
The initiative’s next phase involves the sewing of reusable masks and distribution of these - a sustainable approach to protect ourselves and community. If you would like to know more about this, and keen to lend a sewing hand, please contact facemasks@tamakiregeneration.co.nz