The Call - Helping in the red
Emily Writes Weekly
Kia ora - welcome to the The Call! Basically The Call is a response to the question ‘what can I do to help?’ ‘Can I donate somewhere?’ and ‘I want to do something, where do I start?’
The Call is a newsletter within a newsletter. It is a call to action. It’s a round-up of the current issues and causes our communities are facing. And it hopefully allows you to easily be involved in service to your community through sharing information, raising awareness, signing petitions, donating, volunteering, submitting to select committees, writing to MPs and protesting (virtually for now). You can be as involved as you wish. The Call simply outlines what people in the community are facing and what they need. You decide what you can provide.
What is happening?
The arts are getting pretty slammed at the moment under level Red. Just when things started to get back to a sense of normality, theatres, events and music have had to halve audience numbers or cancel all together because the small audiences are simply not viable.
BATS Theatre is no exception. Every show has had to cut back. Artists and BATS Theatre will be making half of what they could have potentially made. Not to mention the cancellations that have already occured in BATS’ first week of Red.
What can I do to help?
On 14 February 2022 BATS Theatre will officially launch their Love BATS donor programme. The in person event to celebrate the launch has been cancelled but the Love BATS donor programme is ready to go and BATS Theatre needs our love more than ever.
Love BATS has three different ways you can show BATS your love:
I’ve Got a Crush On BATS - a small one off donation.
Turn BATS On - a large one off donation for lighting gear.
Let’s Go Steady - for regular giving.
Regular giving contributes to BATS’ accessibility, low fees for artists and low ticket prices for audiences. If it wasn’t for donations, sponsorship and funding, BATS would have to charge $150 a ticket! Tickets are currently on average $16.50. Regular giving is what BATS really needs to keep the doors open.
About 98% of donations to BATS are one-offs when people buy tickets to shows. With limited audiences to keep everyone safe they really need regular donations. Regular giving can be $5 a week or month, and provides a consistent income to keep going. It doesn’t have to be heaps, every little bit helps.
So go straight to the BATS website or you can email lyndee-jane@bats.co.nz. BATS is also open with shows all through level Red with reduced audience and you can support BATS and the artists by attending a show.
What is happening?
When a parent goes to prison, the children left behind have an uncertain future. As well as the possibility of less family resources or a change of school or caregiver, they must also learn to live with the stigma of being the child of a person in prison. And none of this is the fault of the child.
Pillars works with these children and their families to help them all have lives which are positive and contribute to healthy and successful futures.
Where can I read more?
What can I do to help?
You can become a mentor to a child whose parent is in prison. Pillars mentoring programme supports children and young people aged five to 17 whose parent or caregiver has gone to prison. You would meet with your ‘mentee’ once a fortnight for a minimum of a year- having fun, exploring their community and shared interests, whilst being an ‘askable adult’ in their life.
You can sponsor a child - It costs $3000 to sponsor a child for 12 months thru Pillars Family Wraparound & Mentoring Programme.
Or you can donate to support the great work Pillars does.
What is happening?
It is suggested that 85% of New Zealanders who give birth suffer childbirth injury. One in three people who give birth report their birth as traumatic. Many people consider physical and/or psychological injury to be “just a part of birthing” – this does not have to be the case and, when injury arises, everyone deserves treatment and support. For some time there has been a fight for equitable coverage for birth injuries covered by the Accident Compensation Scheme, to provide greater clarity for claimants, and to better give effect to the policy intent of the Accident Compensation Act 2001.
To be covered under the current legislation an injury must occur due to an “external force” and a foetus is not considered external until they are born. This means that many injuries sustained during birth are not covered.
Birth injuries currently only receive ACC cover if they are found to have occurred due to treatment or lack of treatment during birth. This means if a birth injury “just happens” it likely won’t be covered by ACC. It also means that those injuries due to treatment (or lack of) need to be proven by the birth person and maternity staff. This process can be gruelling for parents who are injured, recovering from birth, caring for baby and possibly other family, and/or in paid employment.
ACC also changed the way it interprets the existing legislation. This simple change to the interpretation of the law is resulting in fewer ACC claims being accepted.
Where can I read more?
Thousands more birth injuries to be covered by ACC, but law change may not go far enough: advocates
No good reason to limit ACC birth injury cover - Dr Simon Connell
Opportunity to Submit for ACC Maternal Birth Injury and Other Matters Amendment Bill
What can I do to help?
You can make a submission to Parliament for the ACC Maternal Birth Injury and Other Matters Amendment Bill. You have until midnight Friday, 11 February 2022 to make a submission and share your story. Here’s a guide to suggested ammendments encouraged by those leading this charge.
For birth trauma support visit My Birth Story. For updates on birth trauma advocacy, education, research and support in Aotearoa visit Birth Trauma Aotearoa.
On a side note about birth trauma: Please be wary of people who call themselves “birth trauma practioners” or “healing birth therapists”. It’s this new fad in the anti-vaxxer world to “train” as a counsellor. I’ve heard some horror stories about mums paying a lot of money from people who are not trained counsellors. People who have no business “treating” vulnerable mothers. In order to qualify as a professional counsellor and attain membership of New Zealand Association of Counsellors, you need to hold either a bachelor's or a master's degree in counselling. Please do not shell out money to someone who holds an Instagram counselling qualification, it’s dangerous to see someone who is not required to follow a code of ethical practice.
We desperately need more maternal mental health support. But insta influencers posing as counsellors aint it.
Let’s make sure we also don’t forget Tonga. I’m going to share the list again from a previous newsletter in case you want to donate or share.
If you can donate to Tongans to help them rebuild and recover, please do:
The Aotearoa Tonga Relief Committee are seeking donations of the following; bottled water, rice, flour, cooking oil, sugar, cabin bread, canned foods, toilet paper, tents,kerosene lamps, torches, rechargeable lanterns etc.
I am very grateful to Neesha Bremner from Incidental Things for helping me with this list.
That’s it for this edition of The Call. Please feel free to share it if you think others might like to help in the community. Let me know in the comments who I should include for the next one! Arohanui, Emily
💕 it all feels scary and overwhelming. A million thanks for having the spoons to share this Emily xoxo