Strong Voices

New Zealand’s minimum wage is $21.20 an hour – but for 900 disabled workers that doesn’t apply. A quarter of them earn between $1 and $2 an hour.

The countdown has started for the IHC Art Awards with the naming of this year’s judges.

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Dairy farmers are keeping a dream alive for Karen Chapman, who grew up on a dairy farm in the small Waikato settlement of Otaua and has only ever wanted to milk cows.

It was a quirky idea – donate a calf to IHC and get a pair of gumboots. But for some reason dairy farmers said, “Count on us”.

Former IHC Vice President Shelley Payne was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the New Year’s Honours, for services to people with intellectual disabilities.

No matter where you live in the country, you have some friends in high places in Wellington.

IHC Association member Doreen Barns wondered what had happened when she had a call just before Christmas from a reporter from the Whanganui Chronicle.

Who cares for the carers? The people who do the best job are those walking in the same shoes.

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Danni-Lee Kokiri, 18, from Lower Hutt, won first place in the IHC Art Awards for 2021 and a $5000 prize for her mystical painting The Chakra Forest. Interviewed after her win, the Taita College student said the trees made her want to fly over them.

Families shut inside in Auckland and Northland have had some online relief during their extended COVID-19 lockdown, with Auckland-based music therapist Ahjay Stelino taking his sounds and skills directly to families with disabled children.