“How long have we been together? I don’t know. I lose track, I think three years. I fell in love with him and he’s nice to me. He’s my partner. I like that he’s got tattoos. We first met on an online dating site. I said to him ‘would he like to come to Gisborne?’…
Timothy, Andrew and Corey live at their Hearth Trust home set in Lower Hutt’s western hills where they are supported by staff and volunteers. This has been their home for the last few years. In 2015 Tim’s family founded the Trust and bought the home where he lives with two others and support workers. The…
“In January I started building my own house in Kihikihi with my brother. About a month before Lockdown I changed my situation and got in a disability provider to look after my Enabling Good Lives (EGL) budget. Life before EGL was terrible, so frustrating. The amount of funding was not very good, and I had…
“It was a last-minute thing to come to Ruatāhuna… we’re blessed to have two homes and work that spreads us between two regions. Once given the warning that we would be moving to Level 4 we had to make a quick decision as to where our whānau would be best placed. Stay in the suburbs,…
“I enjoyed myself in Covid-19 going for a walk. My doctor told me to walk. It’s good. I do more walking now. My staff have noticed that I have lost weight. I want to set a goal. I can still do it. I have walked up Kaiti Hill 25 times. I’m a bit slower up…
On 21 March 2020, Aotearoa entered a situation no one had ever encountered, or imagined, before. We were suddenly at Level 2 of a new pandemic alert response system, due to the outbreak of Covid-19. Four days later, we were at Level 4 of the alert system; a full Lockdown confining people to their home…