More elderly seeking a listening ear
Elderly people are seeking counselling in increasing numbers as they try to deal with an isolation that comes with a faster pace of life for the people around them.
Category: Uncategorized
Helping people to claim what is theirs
‘People would need to seek advice before applying for any benefit assistance, because they don’t know what they could miss out on,’ says Teresa Homan of Upper Hutt.
Church left with mess when WINZ gets it wrong
Caritas is opposing proposals in the new Social Security legislation which would effectively transfer the onus of responsibility for identifying correct benefit entitlements from the Department of Work and Income (WINZ) to beneficiaries themselves.
Human rights the focus of PN ecumenical service
Sikhs, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists and people from various other faiths met on common ground – the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit – to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, 21 March.
Refugee triumphs in fourth language
Being awarded a certificate in English for Speakers of Other Languages was a huge achievement for Tseheinesh Kahsay Woreita of Tigray and has spurred her on to more study. Tseheinesh arrived in New Zealand in 1998 after spending 15 years in a Sudanese refugee camp and before that, walking for eight days with a young child to escape her embattled country.
Easter’s resurrection always and everywhere
My crash to the floor brought Patricia and Barbara, two community members hurrying to the kitchen (even neighbours heard the noise). The 111 call centre operator gave CPR [cardiac pulmonary resuscitation] instructions after listening through the phone to my struggle to breathe. Two ambulances and a fire engine arrived within a minute of being dispatched. Suddenly there were six men and their emergency equipment in our kitchen. Although they applied the ‘paddles’ restarting my heart, the paramedics said it didn’t look good.
You can blame it on Adam and even on Eve
There are not too many of us who think humans are made from clay or from a rib, and there are sound, but not proved reasons, to question whether there was only a pair of human beings or many at the origins of humanity, beginnings marked by the primitive, rather than as beings gifted with wisdom and perfection.
How do we find ourselves in the Passion story
Treaty a basis for religious diversity
At the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, Governor Hobson affirmed, in response to a question from Catholic Bishop Pompallier, ‘the several faiths (beliefs) of England, of the Wesleyans, of Rome, and also Māori custom shall alike be protected’. This foundation creates the opportunity to reaffirm an acknowledgement of the diversity of beliefs in New Zealand.
Food gift or commodity?
From time immemorial food has been invested with cultural values that acknowledge it as a gift. However, the globalisation of food production and distribution disrupts these mores and values not by the free choice of affected populations but as an imposition of global players. This was the problem examined by three authoritative speakers at a recent seminar arranged by the Tamihana Foundation.