In response to this, the team at Pasifika Futures (PFL) have mobilized a team to help support Pacific families in the Nelson community affected by the Omicron outbreak and work closely with PFL partner, the Nelson Tasman Pasifika Community Trust. 

“The immediate need is the welfare support and food. Families are concerned about testing positive and then having to stay home because of that financial burden. 

If they can’t access financial support through MSD, they are referred to us to see how we can support them; it could be things like paying their rent or power for a month”, says Chair of the Nelson Tasman Pasifika Community Trust Board, Mr Sonny Alesana.

Mr Alesana is grateful for the swift response from PFL and their leadership in logistical and clinical support. 

“PFL has that knowledge to provide clinical support to our families. They’ve also set up some logistics for us around the welfare support; they’ve been working in this environment for two years in Auckland so we’re learning quite a bit from the team. 

We have a nurse here from PFL fielding the medical and health calls from families and then they refer them to our welfare team.”

Director of Partnerships for PFL, Mrs Luana Clifford, says the deployment of a team to Nelson was an easy decision to make and allowed them to share their learnings with the Nelson team.

“The positive cases for Pacific peoples were rising in the region and so the Nelson Tasman Pasifika Community Trust asked for some support. 

We deployed a team to work with them to not only show that they are not alone, but to also take our experience, share our processes and lessons from the previous outbreaks where we were instrumental in providing support to our communities.”

#pmafamily #pmaunite

Date: Friday 04 March 2022