Strong Voices

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.

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

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

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

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.

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”.

David Simpson had the ground cut from beneath him when his Kaiapoi home was destroyed in the first Christchurch quake. Then the ground shifted again.

Across the IHC Group, it’s extremely important for us to protect our colleagues and the people we support from COVID-19.

The Wallaces’ five-week-old baby girl, Edin, was in Starship children’s hospital in Auckland with unexplained seizures. Her mother Karen was by her side. Edin’s father Rob was nearby in Ronald McDonald House with her two brothers, Ben, 6, and Ryan, 4. Whatever was going to happen to Edin, the Whangārei family was going to face it together.‍

It has been another tough year of lockdowns. And that came as a real blow to those of us who had hoped the worst was behind us in 2020.