Message from

the Chief Executive

Kia ora koutou

We wanted to provide you an update on what we are doing in response to the severe weather event in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.

Our kaimahi (our people) are working hard alongside agency partners to ensure our ethnic communities access and receive the support they require.

While we are not involved operationally in crisis management, the connections we have with ethnic communities, leaders and service providers allow us to feed important insights to ensure the government’s response is efficient and appropriate for ethnic communities.

We will continue liaising with key agencies to ensure that specific needs are met for ethnic communities such as language accessibility needs, culturally appropriate accommodation, food and prayer spaces.

On Wednesday, we brought ethnic service providers together to find out what they are seeing on the ground and to hear about the experiences of some of the whānau who have been impacted. 

We are supporting these providers and are ensuring we raise any concerns with the relevant government agencies. We will continue to meet with them over the coming weeks.

These providers are doing some incredible work on the ground, and we wanted to share some of their work with you.  We also want to give a huge shout out to all ethnic community providers working hard to help those affected by the floods. Thank you so much for everything you are doing!

Mt Roskill Collective

The Mt Roskill Collective and NZ Ethnic Women’s Trust are working in Mt Roskill to support Muslim women and children who were impacted by the flood.

They are providing emergency accommodation at a temporary shelter, food, and bedding, and are connecting people with other agencies for further support.

The temporary shelter is at May Road School, but the women staying there will have to leave by Tuesday when school resumes.

Work is underway to find those sheltering at the school other emergency accommodation.

Read more about the collective and trust’s work: School offers shelter for Muslim migrants affected by Auckland floods | RNZ News

Contact NZ Ethnic Women’s Trust:

• Phone: 022 632 1053 (please text)
• Email: eva.chen@stats.govt.nz
• Website: https://www.nzethnicwomen.org/

CNSST Foundation

The CNSST Foundation has been working closely with affected communities, providing a range of support, specifically regarding multi-lingual support. They offer support services for Greek, Mongolian, Chinese, Korean, Malay, Hokkien and Hakka speaking families.  

They also offer a Community Connection Service Discretionary fund to all community members that are impacted by the flood, regardless of people’s visa status.

CNSST has established an emergency response team which is helping with communicating official government information, food support, financial assistance, accommodation, insurance advocacy and wellbeing.

Contact CNSST:

• Phone: 09 570 1188
• Wechat: CNSST095701188
• Email: info@cnsst.org.nz
• Website: www.cnsst.org.nz  

Fatimah Foundation

The Fatimah Foundation is the only ethnic service provider supporting flood-affected families at the Māngere Welfare Centre.

They provide cultural and faith-based support in nine languages.

The foundation mobilised the south and east Auckland community to donate towels, clothes, cleaning products and up to 100 halal meals per day.

The foundation has set up a webpage with lots of information about where people can get support.

Contact Fatimah Foundation:

• Mobile: 027 224 2667
• Phone: 09 259 4454 or 0800 222 432
• Email: info@fatimahfoundation.org.nz
• Website: https://fatimahfoundation.org.nz/auckland-floods  

Supreme Sikh Society

The Supreme Sikh Society has cooked thousands of meals in the last week for families and individuals impacted by the flooding.

This Stuff article explains what Auckland's Sikh community is doing, and why helping those in need is "normal practice" for the community.

Diversity Counselling New Zealand

Diversity Counselling can provide free counselling and psychotherapy sessions for ethnic community members who are affected by the recent floods.

Counselling can be face to face, over the phone or through Zoom or Skype. This service can be provided in 24 languages.

The organisation says it takes a comprehensive community-oriented strength-based approach to enhancing the well-being of ethnic people, families, and communities. I

All practitioners are vetted, registered professional counsellors, educational psychologists and clinical psychologists.

Contact Diversity Counselling NZ if you, your community or whānau need this support.

Contact Diversity Counselling NZ:

• Mobile: 0210 262 5587 (please text)
• Phone: 0800 143 269
• Email: contact@dcnz.net
• Website: https://dcnz.net

Contact Us

You can reach out to us by email at info@ethniccommunities.govt.nz.

The floods will continue to impact communities across Auckland and beyond for some time. We will continue to work with these organisations and other providers to ensure our communities are getting the support they need.

Kia pai ō rā whakatā,

Pratima Namasivayam
Acting Chief Executive
Ministry for Ethnic Communities