4 September 2020

Kia ora koutou katoa,

It’s spring and, true to form the weather in New Zealand can best be described as mixed, with warm temperatures in parts of the country and snow in others.

I think it’s a good metaphor for the situation we find ourselves in under Alert Level 2. Things are not what where we want them to be yet, but there’s hope of sunnier times ahead.

Keeping safe under Alert Level 2

While we remain under Alert Level 2 there are things we should all be doing to keep ourselves and others safe. Please keep:

• Washing your hands
• Using the official COVID-19 Tracer App
• Maintaining physical distancing
• Wearing a face mask/covering where you can’t  - it’s mandatory on public transport and if you’re flying anywhere in the country.

More information on keeping safe is available at the COVID-19 website.

I wrote last week that Ministry of Social Development was distributing face masks. They’ve been distributed to community groups and organisations. We’ve heard from the Auckland Indian Association and Belong Aotearoa, who are working together to make sure Aucklanders identified as vulnerable have access to masks. This is not for all and anyone wanting masks. It’s for those most in need who would otherwise not have access to one. If you, or anyone you know needs this kind of support in the Auckland region please contact info@belong.org.nz.

Translations

On the subject of material being available in multiple languages there’s information in 24 languages available on the COVID-19 website. We have been asked about other options, not currently available such as Tamil and Cambodian and have raised this with the All of Government response team.

Many of the services available to help people during the current Alert Levels have phone lines and subscribe to www.ezispeak.nz. This is a telephone interpretation service that runs 24/7 and covers over 180 languages. If anyone in your community does face language barriers in accessing Government telephone services they simply need to tell the person they’re calling that they need an interpreter, and the language they would like to speak. A three-way call will then be set up with someone fluent in their language.

Multilingual Information Network

Continuing the theme of translation and interpretation I’m delighted to tell you that we’re piloting a new initiative - the Multilingual Information Network.

This network is a group of volunteers, from various ethnic communities who help share Government information more widely than traditional channels can reach.

The idea came from the first wave of COVID-19. We heard from ethnic communities that key public information was not reaching everyone. This gap was caused by language barriers and some members of communities not consuming traditional or social media.

You may remember the series of videos we produced in multiple languages. It was a joint effort between us and ethnic community members, using all our language skills to help share important public information.

These videos and the ability of community members to reach deeply into ethnic communities proved successful. It filled a gap that would not otherwise have been dealt with. It also showed that this model could prove effective in the longer-term – gaps in Government information reaching parts of ethnic communities remain.

So we’ve put this model in place on a more formal basis with an initial group of 29 volunteers who have the ability and reach into their communities. The model will work as follows:

• The volunteers (called Information Facilitators), form the network
• The Office of Ethnic Communities organises for Government information to be translated using Department of Internal Affairs' Translation Service
• The translated information is provided to volunteers who share it in a variety of ways.

Information Facilitators will complement, not replace, our Regional Community Engagement Teams.

We’ll be testing the process shortly and I’ll keep you up to date with how things are going. I know that language can be a barrier to people participating in society so I’m very happy to see this is happening.

We are here to help

As ever, we’re here for you, and please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you need help. Below is a list of our Regional Managers.

Northern Region (upper North Island)
Nandita Mathur - 027 299 8031

Central (central and lower-North Island)
Natasha Narayan – 027 268 5153

Southern Region (South Island)
Shane Whitfield – 029 200 4625

You can also contact us by email at ethnic.communities@dia.govt.nz

Take care of yourselves, your families, loved ones and wider communities

Ngā mihi nui
Anusha Guler
Executive Director, Office of Ethnic Communities