Whether working from home, or the office we have been exceptionally busy over the last few weeks and there are some important things I would like to share with you.

Ethnic communities communication fund

Earlier today Minister Radhakrishnan announced details of a new COVID-19 Ethnic communities communications fund. We have set this up in partnership with the Ministry of Health.

The fund makes $1million available for ethnic community organisations, to help them share vaccination information with their communities.

The overall government vaccination communications campaign has been significant. It has provided information in multiple languages, used ethnic media and involved a lot of community engagement. It is something the Ministry has been heavily involved in.

But we know there is more we can do. The sheer diversity of Aotearoa New Zealand's ethnic communities means a huge variety of approaches are needed to reach everyone. That is where this fund will help. It will provide funding to enable community organisations to share material widely and reach people who rely on their communities for information.

The fund works in a similar way to the Ethnic Communities Development Fund with organisations applying for funding. Applications are open from today and close on 6 October. All the applications will be assessed in one go so that the money can be given to communities as soon as possible.

Full details, including the application process are available on the Ministry of Health website.

Getting your views on our strategy

Earlier this year, when we still setting up the Ministry we took the time to speak with people from across our ethnic communities. We asked what was most important to them, and what the new Ministry should focus on first.

We had two aims in doing this:

• To write a Ministry strategy that reflected the priorities of our communities
• And, to make sure we could hit the ground running.

The Ministry for Ethnic Communities is still quite new – we came into being on 1 July. One of the first things we have done is take what people told us and use it to create a draft strategy.

It has four key goals – driven by the needs and concerns of ethnic communities:

• New Zealanders appreciate the value of diversity and actively include ethnic communities across all spheres of public life
• Ethnic communities have equitable access to high quality government services, and that their experience is positive
• Ethnic communities are gainfully and meaningfully employed, and continue to make strong contributions to the New Zealand economy
• Ethnic communities are empowered and supported to flourish in New Zealand.

To bring these goals to life we have created a roadmap of actions – all designed to lift the wellbeing of ethnic communities.

Shortly we will be speaking with our communities again to check that we have got things right. Like earlier this year there will be group sessions. With the current Alert Level settings, this time we will run these online so people across the country can join in. There will also be an online survey. Details will be available shortly and I will share them with you.

Ethnic voices will continue to drive where we put our effort. That is how it should be.

Meeting with the Myanmar community

On Wednesday evening we met with Myanmar community leaders through a Zoom session.  It has been a difficult time for the Myanmar community recently with people here missing family back at home and worrying about their well-being. This meeting provided an opportunity for everyone to come together, share the struggles in these difficult times, celebrate the good things happening and discuss future ideas. 

I would like to thank everyone for giving us their time. You have our support and we look forward to connecting again soon.

Take care of yourselves.

Ngā mihi nui

Mervin Singham
Chief Executive, Ministry for Ethnic Communities