May 2016: When Awhina (Tūhoe) moved to Rotorua, she wanted to start a new life and look after the most important thing in her life – her precious tamariki. After years of abuse, Awhina made the difficult decision to move away from the harm and fear and to find a home that could offer her tamariki the stability, safety and security that she had been denied for so long.
But where to start?
With no whānau support, no friends and being new to Rotorua, what Awhina needed was help and what she found was Matua Whāngai – a partner of the Te Arawa Whānau Ora Collective.
As a well respected community support service, Matua Whangai was able to provide a support letter to Work & Income New Zealand (WINZ) to request assistance, something Awhina couldn’t do on her own.
At the same time Awhina started her own Whānau Plan to connect the aspirations of her and her tamariki to actionable goals she could achieve.
Awhina accessed counselling support to deal with her grief and feelings of loss. At the same time, she met a new friends who encouraged her to pursue her dream of opening a beauty salon so is looking to enrol on a course to get her one step closer.
These past few days have seen Awhina and her tamariki find a new, warm, safe and secure home to call their own.
Thinking on it, Awhina felt that what was critical to her moving forward was the space to kōrero with her paeārahi.
Just having that friendly person able to talk through some of the issues, explain options and offer practical advise allowed (me) to find my feet.”
Her most immediate goal is to be independent and working.
“I want to be able to provide for my kids without WINZ or anyone else’s support and making a plan is going to help me do that”, says Awhina.
We would like to wish Awhina and her whānau all the very best for the future.
Why Te Arawa Whānau Ora Works
Te Arawa Whānau Ora has been successful because it ensures whānau are able to determine their own goals and are given positive support to achieve them. Te Arawa Whānau Ora will work with groups, whānau and individuals to support them to become successful.
Te Arawa Whānau Ora works because it puts whānau in the driver’s seat, they define their own goals and make their own decisions. Te Arawa Whānau Ora has helped over 1500 individual whānau members over the last year. If you would like to know more please contact us.