Disabilities Wananga

Published 10 February 2009, Posted in Northland

Whanau living with disability – let’s talk about life. Come to a one - day wananga!

The Maori Development Research Centre (MDRC) is a registered company of social researchers in several areas of Maori development including cultural history, whanau and hapu development, disability issues for Maori and Maori post-secondary education.

We’re facilitating the formation of a kaupapa whanau of people interested in helping to improve quality of life for whanau living with disability. A key part of this process will be meeting together to wananga.

What will happen?

We will be holding one-day wananga in 12 regions around the country including Whangarei.

The wananga agenda is open to discuss anything the kaupapa whanau would like to discuss. Some suggestions for topics are:

• The health and disability strategies of the Ministry of Health and how they affect Maori with disabilities and their whanau
• Whether the Maori health strategies and action plans work for whanau living with disability
• What’s working well and why
• What needs to improve and how
• How research should be prioritized
• Whether the kaupapa whanau should continue.

We’ll be taking notes at the wananga and then holding another hui before/after winter to communicate what we, as a national collective, had to say. People are welcome to come to this hui as well, to hear the results and make sure their views are properly reported. Then we’ll write up a report and submit it to the Ministry of Health. People can participate and withdraw from this process at any time.

If the kaupapa whanau would like to continue on past that point, we will investigate options and possibilities for that continuation.

Why do this?

The information collected will contribute to developing the policies of the Ministry of Health, the Health Research Council and the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology. We would like those who are most affected by the policies to have a say in further developing those policies.

Whangarei wananga

Mon 2 Mar 2009, 9am - 5pm
Te Puna O Te Matauranga Marae
Raumanga Valley Road
This is an accessible venue

What should people do if they’re interested?

For more info, to ask questions or to RSVP, please contact MDRC – we’d love to get connected. Our contact details are as follows:
Phone/fax: 07 858 2047
Address: PO Box 4467, 102 Brookfield Street, Hamilton East
Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) Website: http://www.mdrc.co.nz