Welcome to Friday team!
I know, I’m not as cool as your rangatahi contact
I know I haven’t touched base very often over the last few months, and that’s been intentional because I know Arita and the rest of our rangatahi superstars have been helping out as much as they can, and most likely quicker than I have in previous years, and because I know that relationship, and the learning that comes with it, won’t happen if I keep jumping in over the top.
I did want to drop in for a quick update though while Arita is busy today helping Tiara with the gifter inbox.
As you’ve probably noticed, this year has been a lot harder than others to find enough gifters to koha for our tamariki. Even with our amazing rangatahi crew helping our gifters with more (and better) communication than what I ever did, it's just been harder to find gifters (not surprising given the increased challenges many of our whānau and communities are facing in this cost-of-living crisis). When I say more communication, they’ve answered over 200 emails just in the last 2 days.
But I'll send a more detailed update on the mahi of our kāhui rangatahi later…
Emergency back-up gifters
We've struggled to find back-up gifters for the people who hadn't logged in or confirmed they were taking part, or pulled out at the last minute. If you haven't seen the huge amount of work on social media (and you won't have seen the emails), it's been a mission to try and cover all of these - again, much harder than in previous years. But we've managed to do this for all regions so far except Murupara where we're still looking for around 90 gifters, Rotorua where we're looking for 70, and Gisborne (Ruatoria) where we need around 30.
Back-up gifts due date
To make it easier for these back-up gifters, we've given them until 5/12 to get their last-minute koha delivered. Though as always, we think some will probably come in a day or two later than that.
Scanning
If you’re having trouble scanning, let me know - usually the stuff at the bottom of this page (click ‘Help! it’s not working!) will resolve any issues, but if it doesn’t, let me know :) Shoebox Christmas info - Scanning app (designed by our incredible rangatahi designer Uru).
Ōku awangawanga - my concerns
I am a little worried that because of the challenges mentioned above, that some of the gifters who confirmed they were going to deliver their gift, actually don’t, and that we’ll need to do another big push for specific schools/ece/services - as we catch our breath today from finding emergency gifters, and think through what we’re going to do in Rotorua, Murupara, and Gisborne, we’ll think about this too. Our rangatahi are incredibly bright and creative thinkers, and I’m sure we’ll come up with something!
Thanking our gifters
In the next couple of days, our rangatahi will reach out and ask if they can help you with a mihi or thank you to the gifters who gave to the tamariki and whānau you support - we want to make this as awesome as possible because it’s important we take the time to thank the people who have taken the time to let our tamariki know they care. Te Kāhui Rangatahi are putting together some ideas at the moment which they’ll share with you and offer their help.
Any pātai or help today? Ask me :)
If you have any questions today, ask me - Arita is busy on our gifter inbox - I’ll be checking this inbox here all day until 5.
Mā pango, mā whero, ka oti te mahi!
Ngā manaakitanga,
Pera