Welcome to Awhi - The Awhi Ngā Mātua community newsletter
Let us awhi you!
Kia ora,
We hope you’re well. We wanted to give you an update on how things are going in the Awhi Ngā Mātua community and introduce you to Awhi - the Awhi Ngā Mātua newsletter. As you might have noticed – we have moved to the Substack platform to share news from our community. We did this for accessibility purposes. Please feel free to share this with your friends and family.
You can unsubscribe or subscribe from the Awhi newsletter here – there is no cost and there will never be a cost to joining the Awhi Ngā Mātua community.
We are so happy to let you know that Awhi Ngā Mātua has been live for a few months now and we’ve been having great conversations in the community.
JOIN THE AWHI NGĀ MĀTUA COMMUNITY.
Awhi Ngā Mātua is here to lift our community up. With the support and solidarity of our community, we hope members can grow their confidence when advocating for themselves and the children in their care.
This month we have talked about a bunch of different things including our child’s special interests, hyperfixation, helping with covid 19 rapid antigen tests, school holidays…We would love you to join us!
Vaccine passes and vaccine mandates in education
We posted on behalf of the community after surveying everyone about their feelings on the removal of vaccine passes and vaccine mandates from education. Feedback was overwhelming and unanimously against the move.
So, we put out a press release: “I’m terrified” - parents of disabled children share their reaction to the Government’s announcement.
We also connected some of our families with journalists so they could share their stories. Here’s one of the resulting stories: Parents of vulnerable children angry at easing of Covid restrictions.
Chris Hipkins responded to our letter. You can read his response in the Awhi community platform.
Autism Acceptance Month
We are marking Autism Acceptance Month by sharing the views and opinions of #ActuallyAutistic people. Fiona McKenzie interviewed Chanelle Mariah, who has written the book I am Autistic for our Awhi Ngā Mātua video series. Watch it here.
We have published a series on neurodivergent terms at Awhi Ngā Mātua panui – our stories page.
· What is a “special interest” for autistics
· What is hyperfocus? What is hyperfixation?
Our community
We would love it if you joined us. Awhi Ngā Mātua is specifically for parents of disabled, medically fragile or neurodivergent children.
Our community is BRAND NEW so just pop in and have a chat and get to know the place. Feel free to introduce yourself and your tamariki by posting a photo and sharing your story.
Do you have a topic you’d like us to cover or look into? Just let us know by replying to this email or using the Ask Awhi button on the Awhi community platform.
Arohanui from Emily & Elizabeth and the Awhi Ngā Mātua team
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