The Indian Weekender, Friday 21 August 2020

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8 NEW ZEALAND Friday, August 21, 2020 The Indian Weekender Indian High Commission gives Certificates of Appreciation to mark support provided to communities during the lockdown RIZWAN MOHAMMAD The Indian High Commission has on the occasion of 74th Indian Independence Day acknowledged and felicitated nine individuals and organisations for their exceptional contributions towards stranded Indian nationals and temporary migrant workers out of resources during the first Alert Level 4 lockdown in the country. The names were announced and presented certificates at the Independence Day celebration event under Alert Level 2 in at Bharat Bhawan in Wellington on Saturday, August 15. Prominent charitable organisations such as BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha, Supreme Sikh Society of New Zealand, Ekta Foundation, Jeet Suchdev of Bhartiya samaj Charitable trust, along with noted individuals within community such as Mahesh Ranchhod, Monty Patel, Prithipal Singh Basra, , and Dr Vikas Sethi from Prana Health were amongst those who received the certificate of appreciation. During the national lockdown in New Zealand earlier this year, approximately, 3000 Indian nationals, who had come to NZ for tourism, visiting their families, for business, and temporary workers were left stranded without many financial resources to support themselves. The issues then ranged from running out of money to pay necessary living expenses and bills, people having medical conditions and ran out of their prescriptions, there a few bereavements, the mortal remains of whom had to be sent back home (India), and many were desperate to be able to return to their homes and families. In such times, the High Commission of India assured to help the needy with essentials, accommodation, food up until a repatriation flight was organised to take those stranded nationals back home. In this endeavour, several Indian community organisations and individuals came forward offering money, food, shelter, medicines, and some even to transport essentials to the doors of the needy individuals and families. “Many volunteered to deliver food, medicines and other essentials to their doorsteps, doctors offered their services free of charge, and It was a collective victory of the human spirit,” Indian High Commissioner Muktesh Pardeshi said at the felicitation ceremony in Wellington last weekend. “It is obviously not possible for us to name all those who came forward to help, but we have identified nine organisations and individuals, the ‘Navratnas’, who rendered yeoman’s service to the stranded Indians and we recognise their contribution by way of ‘Certificates of Appreciation’,” Mr Pardeshi added. The recipients were: BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha BAPS Swaminarayan has always been proactive in helping the communities, and apart from providing spiritual succour in these stressful times (lockdown), they gave 50 kits of food items and other basic needs to High Commission of India for distribution in the Wellington area and 100 kits to our Honorary Consul in Auckland for distribution in the larger Auckland area. Ekta Foundation Ekta NZ has been at the forefront in helping the homeless and the deprived with RIZWAN MOHAMMAD Fate took a drastic turn for a young migrant couple living in New Zealand when the wife of a migrant worker got hospitalised due to a terminal illness and husband left work to be by her side during the last days of his sick partner. A 31-year-old woman temporary migrant worker from India, Manwinder Kaur died in Auckland last week ending her four months trial with blood cancer. Community mourned the loss of a young life to Leukaemia, who worked as a healthcare professional in an Auckland company. Manwinder was diagnosed with the illness earlier in April this year and spent her last days in Auckland Hospital with her husband, Gagandeep Singh by her community kitchens, distribution of clothes and in so many other ways. They closely coordinated with High Commission of India in reaching out and helping stranded Indians in the larger Wellington area. Jeet Suchdev President of Bhartiya Samaj Charitable Trust from Auckland has been the voice of ethnic senior citizens for more than two decades. During the first lockdown, he provided every possible assistance to HCI and Consulate in Auckland with the stranded Indians and while seeing them off from Auckland airport. Mahesh Ranchhod Mahesh Ranchhod comes from a family with a long history of philanthropy, which firmly believes in giving back to society. A flourishing businessman who came together with Honorary Consul in Auckland to provide food and other basic needs to the stranded community. Bhav Dhillon Honorary Consul of India, Bhav Dhillon led the mission in Auckland dedicating not just his time and but also resources, directing and side. Manwinder hailed from Kotkapura district of Punjab, India and got married to Gagandeep in 2015. She was on Essential Skills Work Visa in New Zealand and the couple visited by their in-laws earlier in 2019. Being the only family member to his sick wife here in Auckland, Gagandeep left work supporting her with hospital visits, medications and taking care of Manwinder. Adding to the stress of being the sole breadwinner out of work amid Covid-19 pandemic, Gagandeep applied for visa exemption of her family members in India earlier in April to visit their loved one, but Immigration New Zealand declined the application. Manwinder lost the battle to her illness on Tuesday, August 11 at Auckland coordinating relief efforts including arranging food items, bringing community organisations and individuals together, managing volunteers and distributing food bags to needy individuals. Monty Patel Owner of a chain of restaurants and food processing businesses in the Wellington area, Monty Patel when came across the news that foodbanks in the region were running low on supplies- he came forward and donated 22 tonnes of rice worth around hundreds of thousands of dollars, which have been finding their way to the people in need through various charities. Prithipal Basra Lack of accommodation was one of the biggest challenges that the stranded Indian nationals faced. A prominent Auckland hotelier came forward and opened the doors of his motels and gave shelter to the stranded Indians for weeks that included meals for both individuals and families living there. Supreme Sikh Society of New Zealand The Supreme Sikh Society of New Zealand embodied this teaching of serving humanity as they distributed thousands of food packets not only to the stranded Indians but to all those in need in the community, spread from Auckland to several small cities and towns in North Island. Dr Vikas Sethi As per the SOPs for international travel in these Covid times, passengers had to undergo medical screening before they could board the Vande Bharat Mission led Air India flights back home. Dr Vikas Sethi and his colleagues from Prana Health came forward and helped the High Commission of India in meeting this vital requirement and offered free medical services to many stranded Indians travelling back home. Temporary migrant worker loses battle to terminal illness, rested in Auckland Hospital last week. Husband had Gagandeep applied for a short-term visa exemption for her family members from India to attend the funeral but said he did not receive any response from Immigration New Zealand. Gagandeep, having been out of work for months since he was taking care of his wife, reached out to the High Commission of India to help cover some funeral costs. Gagandeep conducted his wife Manwinder’s funeral on Friday, August 14 at Ann’ Funeral in South Auckland in the presence of friends and community members which was limited to ten due to Alert Level 3 in Auckland. A prayer ceremony was held at Sri Guru Nanak Dev Sikh Sangat Gurdwara in Otahuhu for the peace of the departed soul earlier on Monday, August 17.
The Indian Weekender Friday, August 21, 2020 NEW ZEALAND 9 The Govt’s resurgence plan with COVID-19 Priyanca Radhakrishnan Labour List MP based in Maungakiekie and Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister for Ethnic Communities We currently have cases of COVID-19 in our community once again. As a result, the Auckland region will remain in Alert Level 3 until 11:59pm Wednesday 26 August, while the rest of New Zealand will remain in Alert Level 2 for the same duration. The Prime Minister has recently announced that the General Election will now be held on 17 October 2020. This short delay gives the Commission more time to p repare, including freeing up facilities for early voting during school holidays. The government’s focus right now is on keeping New Zealanders safe from COVID-19, while minimising the ongoing economic impact of the virus – and not on electioneering. We will face this together. We’ve done it before and we’ll do it again. Our strong systems have kept us COVID-free almost longer than anywhere else. We had more than 100 days without community transmission, in which time we were able to learn from incidents of resurgence in other countries. But there was always a chance the virus would reappear here. That’s why we developed a plan for dealing with it. This was based on lessons from overseas and we activated it immediately. It is a rapid response to break the chain of transmission. The aim now is to quickly identify cases and stamp them out. We said from the start that the best economic response was a strong health response. And so we are prepared to go hard now with our plan, in the knowledge that this can save lives in the short term and soften the economic blow in the long term. In addition, the government has moved quickly with a further economic package to cushion the blow for businesses and workers that includes a new wage subsidy scheme and a simplified leave scheme. The new wage subsidy will help support cash flow and confidence. Along with the existing wage subsidy extension – which is open until 1 September for eligible businesses – the Treasury estimates that about 930,000 jobs will be covered by the two schemes. Practising good hygiene, keeping track of where you go, and staying home if you feel sick are all still among the best ways to stop the spread of COVID-19. At higher alert levels please use a mask when accessing essential services. At lower alert levels we advise their use in places where social distancing can be difficult. Also, please download the NZ COVID Tracer app to enable more efficient contact tracing when required. You will see and hear from the Government daily as we move cautiously through this period. What we do in the coming days will determine what the coming months look like for us. Let’s be calm, kind and supportive. As a team of five million, we’ve done it before and together we’ll do it again.
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The Indian Weekender, Friday 21 August 2020

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