My Account
Let’s do this once and let’s do it properly – that’s the message on the national lockdown from a regional community civil defence coordinator.
Anne Dickson is the local contact for Communities Supporting Awareness and Readiness Rodney East (CARRE), which includes volunteers from community response, ratepayer and neighbourhood groups from Upper Waiwera north through Mahurangi. CARRE works closely with Auckland Council’s emergency management civil defence team.
Anne says while a number of communities have already established support networks such as phone trees, she believes the formation of Mahurangi Caremongers is the best way to centralise information and support resources throughout the local area, while keeping contact to a minimum.
“I welcome this centralised organisation as it means that there are less people doing the running around and increasing the possibility of transmission. They are doing a fantastic job,” she says.
“I am staying in touch with Auckland Emergency Management for any updates from them, but they are being guided by the National Covid-19 response team.”
Anne is also warning that, even in the middle of the crisis, there are scammers trying to take advantage of people via phone calls or emails.
“The main ones I am aware of are emails, apparently from Spark, asking people to click a link to confirm email details for emergency contact, and phone calls from bogus medical staff, telling people their tests are positive and they can send antibiotics immediately, they just need your credit card details,” she says. “More than ever, this is a time to be cautious.”
INFO: Mahurangi Caremongers on Facebook, visit bit.ly/CareMongers, email caremongers@freerangemedia.co.nz, or call Peter Henderson on 027 477 6519, Murray Chapman on 027 496 6550 or Grant Henderson on 027 403 9918.
