Thousands of hours helping mosque attack victims
Former politician and renowned ‘money man’ Raf Manji has given thousands of voluntary hours fielding calls for help from Christchurch shooting victims and the bereaved. reports.
Raf Manji has spent the past year working in one of his most challenging jobs. The former Christchurch City councillor first started talking with March 15 mosque attack victims as advisor to the Christchurch Foundation on how it should distribute its $11 million Our People, Our City fund.
His financial knowledge, ethnic background, and understanding of Islamic beliefs from having an Indian Muslim father made him an obvious choice for the job.
‘‘Having a brown face certainly helps,’’ he says.
While Manji is coy on the time donated, Christchurch Foundation chief executive Amy Carter estimates he spent ‘‘thousands of hours’’ of mostly voluntary time with the community.
‘‘He told me it was the most stressful job he’s ever done, and he’s had some incredible roles.’’
Those roles included investment banker in London, and two terms on Christchurch’s council.
Manji initially intended to chair a committee, but he says it soon became clear the Muslim community wanted to talk only to him.
He found himself fielding calls day and night from struggling families, after his suggestion that an agency like the Office of Ethnic Communities take the lead was ignored.
Immigration, housing, cultural differences, financial needs, language barriers, and all the mental and physical health needs make it ‘‘extremely difficult’’.
‘‘You couldn’t find more challenges in trying to deal with an event like this,’’ he says. ‘‘In some respect, I have become the fullback on the team. Things tend to dribble down to me when they don’t fit with other agencies.’’
He is used to operating at a ‘‘high activity level’’. ‘‘But there were times when I was like, ‘whoa’.’’
He worked every day for three months on the ‘‘listening project’’, including one Saturday with eight back-to-back, grief-stricken meetings. Only one Sunday he forced himself to turn his phone off.
‘‘On reflection, that was quite a lot for one person to take on . . . hearing everybody’s terrible stories and how difficult it is for them.
‘‘I’ve always taken the approach I don’t sweat the small stuff, and paperwork. If someone needs help I will provide that for them.’’
The foundation began paying him for a part-time role this year, but he is ‘‘available 24/7’’.
Manji’s Indian-born father – whose upcoming 80th birthday in Spain he is unable to attend due to coronavirus – met with Pakistani families of victims in the shooting aftermath, during a trip to visit family.
‘‘He was profoundly moved by it. And for them to meet someone who’s been to New Zealand and whose son is doing this work.
‘‘For those families who haven’t been able to come here, it’s quite difficult for them.’’
He researched world events and terrorist attacks to get an idea of what challenges the community would face, including interviewing Grenfell Tower support agencies in London. A fire in the high-rise complex in 2017 killed 72 people.
Defining who was a victim created splits in communities, which ‘‘certainly appeared here as well’’.
‘‘There is no perfect in a situation like this.’’
Christchurch’s Muslim community was not hugely visible pre-March 2019, and with a range of ethnicities, and refugee or migrant statuses, immigration was one of the biggest challenges.
Manji’s job has been to bridge the gaps in needs using Christchurch Foundation funds.
‘‘One of the issues for the Government is they kind of treated it like it was an accident, instead of a terrorist attack.
‘‘Fifty-one people were murdered in cold blood and a number of others bullet wounded.’’
It wasn’t a normal accident, and should have been dealt with differently to normal ACC payouts, he says.
The Government could have eliminated ‘‘huge discrepancies’’ and saved time and grief by giving each widow the same amount of financial support regardless of their income.
‘‘I’m in a position where people are asking for stuff all the time.’’
But Manji wants to help families able to go forward independently – like funding English and driving lessons
‘‘In some respect, I have become the fullback on the team. Things tend to dribble down to me when they don’t fit with other agencies.’’
Raf Manji
for widows. ‘‘Sometimes there has had to be a bit of tough love.’’
At some point that ‘‘cushion’’ he offers the community has to stop.
When his city councillor role ended in October, he delayed a move to Wellington to pursue a career in public policy – ‘‘where the rubber meets the road’’.
Manji is making plans to step back September, while still retaining a role in future distribution of the education fund for victims’ children.
He hopes to give a summary report to the Government on his experiences over the past year.
The victim community had coped really well, and put up with a lot, he says. ‘‘A lot of them have made progress, but they’re still going to need support.
‘‘They’re good people, and just want the same things as everyone else.’’
Carter says Manji’s work will soon fall back on the Government.
‘‘I’m worried about where [victims] will fall between the gaps once Raf leaves.’’
She hopes lessons from Christchurch’s years of disaster response had shown the need for specialist response teams in the future.
Carter wishes Manji well in focusing on his own career going forward. ‘‘He has given so much to this city.’’