Five ways to help your community right now

Mar 24, 2025

Whether you have five minutes or $5 or both, there are so many ways you can make a difference in your community. We can all make a difference - even if it’s in just a tiny way. Here are some causes to get behind. I hope they help you to feel less helpless.

Sign the petition calling on Erica Stanford to retain funding for Māori Resource Teaching and literacy services in schools.

Māori resource teachers and literacy services teachers give ongoing support to tamariki in need, while also ensuring teachers and principals are properly resourced – whether that’s for reading and writing or running te reo immersion programmes.

Resource teachers bring expertise and experience that is invaluable and in high demand. Yet these services have been severely under-resourced for a long time, leading to tamariki missing out altogether, or when they are provided, not having enough resource teachers to go around.

However, instead of increasing funding for these services, Minister of Education Erica Stanford is now proposing to scrap RT Māori and RT literacy services completely from 2026, with no clear plan as to how they would be replaced.

Sign the petition now to retain funding for these amazing teachers.

Sign the open letter supporting the disabled community and their families

March 18, 2025, marks one year since the government began disrupting, removing and restricting supports for disabled tamariki and adults. It also marks one year since former minister Penny Simmonds falsely claimed in Parliament that parents and carers of disabled tamariki were misusing disability support funding.

Her repeated public accusations were an attack on a vulnerable community. Her words caused families and carers shame, distress, and trauma.

Sign the open letter calling on the government to recognise the harm they’ve caused.

Help to find SIX MPs to support sanctions for Israel

Chlöe Swarbrick's Unlawful Occupation of Palestine Sanctions Bill has Opposition’s 55 members in support so it needs just six more MP votes from the government to move forward. Contact any or all Government MPs and beg them to support this bill. Tell them that, as our elected representatives, they have the democratic right—and indeed the responsibility—to vote independently on this bill, beyond party lines.

On September 10, 2024, Aotearoa joined 123 UN Member States in supporting a resolution to sanction those responsible for Israel's continued unlawful presence in Occupied Palestinian Territories. Yet, our government has stalled in acting on this commitment.

Contact any or all of the following MPs and speak from your heart. Even one sentence - Please support Chlöe Swarbrick's Unlawful Occupation of Palestine Sanctions Bill to stand against genocide - will help.

If you get any responses please send them through to me at emilywritesnz at gmail. Thank you so much!

Talk to your family about organ donation

Have a no judgement chat about organ donation with your family. Remember that sometimes culturally organ donation is not something someone feels able to do. But if it is something you believe in, make sure you tell your family.

Organ donation is only possible when a person is on a ventilator (breathing machine) in an intensive care unit (ICU), usually with severe brain damage. Less than 1% of all deaths happen this way. However, when donation can occur, one donor has the potential to help up to ten people through the donation of organs and tissues.

Following your death, a health professional will ask your family if they know whether you wanted to be a donor or not. This is why it’s important to have a conversation with them about donation.

Your family will be asked for their consent to donate your organs and tissues, so make sure you tell them what organs or tissues you would want to donate.

You can make your wishes to become an organ and tissue donor known by ticking DONOR in question 4C on your driver licence application or renewal form. The word DONOR will then be printed on your licence. However, this is not an official organ donation register; you still need to let your family know what you want to happen following your death.

Here’s everything you might ever need to know about organ donation.

@candy.and.dave This was a hard video to record and I’m sorry it was so long. If you couldn’t stay to the end. Please look into organ donation if you can, talk to your families about your wishes. You could save more then just one life, you could help multiple. New Zealand and Australia share organs between us. There is not enough donors to save lives in our country. We need to share this message. Please share this video. I need your help. #organdonation #newzealand #australia

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Add a pantry staple and/or a personal hygiene item to your weekly shop

Over the past week, multiple food banks and missions have reported that their pantries are empty. When you do your local shop, consider buying a pantry staple or personal hygiene item.

Pantry staples are: Rice, pasta, canned food, breakfast cereals, spreads. long-life milk
Personal hygiene items are: Soap, shampoo, deodorant, body wash, and sanitary products.

Find your local food bank here for drop off donations.

You can also set up a monthly or one-off koha to your local food bank. There is a directory of all bank accounts here.

I’d love to hear ways you are supporting your community or any causes you think we can get behind as a community. Please leave a comment below to share. Arohanui and thank you for your generosity.

Emily Writes Weekly

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