Champion was there for the troubled
‘Mama Jodz’ lifted people who were down, cared when they felt no one would
LShe was such a vibrant woman with her big laugh and her gravelly voice and her heart full of aroha.
ife can be cruel and it seemed never crueller than when a random scroll through Facebook revealed the terrible news that Jodi Manuel, the woman with the biggest heart I have ever known, had died over the weekend.
She was only young — just 45 — so young that her baby Jodeci, the youngest of her four beautiful daughters, has only just started at secondary school.
Her name may mean nothing to you. But to hundreds of people, many of them young people, she was “Mama Jodz”, the woman who picked them up when they were down, who cared for them when they thought nobody else would, who fed them, counselled them, drove them around, came to them in the middle of the night when they were desperate, who coached and mentored them, who growled at them when they needed it and who never let them down.
She is best known in Taupo¯ for Apo¯ po¯ , the one-stop shop for teenagers she started in October 2010 after becoming frustrated with the existing youth services.
Instead of one-off interventions with limited success, Jodi saw the need for a place where youth, particularly those at-risk, out of school, or from unstable family backgrounds could come for counselling, advice, a shoulder to cry on and a safe place to hang out.
“They [the kids] are looking for something different,” she told me in an interview in 2016. “They’re looking for hope that what they’re experiencing every day isn’t the beall and end-all.
“We expose them to possibilities that they haven’t even thought of.”
A counsellor by trade, she was frustrated by the patchwork nature of services that were aimed at youth but never really reached them and that bounced rangatahi around from place to place. Apo¯ po¯ , meaning “tomorrow”, was a safe place where you could go to hang out, to study if you’d been kicked out of school, or for a feed, or to seek help and support and where there was no judgment.
Funding and finding the $10,000 needed every month to keep the doors open was always an issue and although there was praise for Apo¯ po¯ from MPs and government ministers, police and bureaucrats for the work it did to help young people, it received not a cent of local or central government money. Its only income came from fundraising, grants and private sponsorship. Jodi refused to compromise her principles to tender for government contracts because, as she said, Apo¯ po¯ was a generic service and didn’t fit into just the health sector or social sectors and “we won’t change to suit them”.
“For as long as we can sustain being like this, I’d prefer to do it because you get to spend more time with [the youth] and less time ticking boxes.”
Her work saw her nominated for the New Zealander of the Year Awards in the community category. The citation said Apo¯ po¯ provided drug and alcohol counselling, took young people to school and health appointments, helped them find jobs and homes, provided them with food and advocated for them with agencies such as Winz. It also encouraged the rangatahi to give back to their community, getting them involved with the annual Taupo¯ FoodBank drive and community projects.
At Jodi’s emotional funeral service on Tuesday it was acknowledged that without her, some of the people in the room would not have survived to be there. One young man said he was in a gang when he met Jodi in 2013. She helped him turn his life around and today he works with youth. “Beautiful lady, strong. Thank you for my new journey that I’m on today.” Another trio performed a haka full of passion, love and grief. Many wept as they spoke of what she was to them.
In 2016, Jodi moved to Tauranga to take up a position as a youth justice worker. She returned to Taupo¯ this year to work at Te Whare Oranga Wairua, the Ma¯ ori Women’s Refuge, but was diagnosed with cancer shortly afterwards. She kept her battle private and it was a huge shock to many to hear of her death. She was such a vibrant woman with her big laugh and her gravelly voice and her heart full of aroha, who never did anything by halves, who fought hard and loved harder.
What a massive, positive, real and practical difference she made to our young people and to our community. Moe mai ra, wahine toa.
The volunteer contribution at Taupo¯ Hospital’s emergency department has been so successful the hospital is hoping to expand the service to its inpatient ward.
Friends of the Emergency Department (known as the FEDs) team leader Myrene McLeod heads up a team of mainly retired volunteers and will help set up a new team of volunteers for the inpatient ward. She says the new team will be run in a similar way as the FEDs and volunteers will be known as Hospital Friends.
The FEDs have been operating for more than 10 years. Myrene says the FEDs do three shifts a day. Each shift is four hours long, with one person on duty per shift. Initially, the Hospital Friends would do one shift per day at the inpatient ward.
“We are looking for volunteers who would enjoy talking and interacting with people when they are unwell, plus doing a few small chores,” said Myrene.
Emil and Hea Min Horvath have volunteered as FEDs for the past three years. Neither of them had much to do with healthcare but had an extended hospital experience when Hea Min had a stroke eight years ago while on holiday in Germany. She was in hospital for three months and during this time she and husband Emil both came to admire the work done by the nurses
who cared for her. “I said to Emil, ‘We should give something back when I am well’,” said Hea Min.
It took five years before Hea Min felt she had sufficient strength, and three years ago they began their volunteer experience as Friends of the Emergency Department. Hea Min says they provide comfort to both the patients and to the people who bring them in.
“Also by being there we are a supportive presence for the nurses and doctors, particularly if there is a mental health patient.”
She said it makes her so happy seeing the look on a child’s face when, with the nurse’s permission, she gives them an ice block.
Emil says retired residents from Summerset Village knit beautiful teddies, and giving a teddy to a fraught child makes a huge difference
to their immediate outlook.
He also enjoys having a joke with the patients and nurses and says it is a good feeling to know at the end of his shift that he has brought cheer and laughter to people who unexpectedly find themselves in the hospital.
“It is a good feeling to be able to give something back,” said Emil. Both agree being a FED is very rewarding.
Myrene says the application process for becoming a FED or Hospital Friend starts with a background check by St John New Zealand. Candidates do a training programme where they learn about health and safety issues, and disease-control measures. This is followed by on-thejob training, a buddy shift, and then they are qualified to work on their own.
Duties include providing support
to patients and their relatives, making cups of tea, sitting with patients and quietly talking to them.
Myrene says volunteers need to be sure they are comfortable working in a hospital environment. Applicants also need to be reasonably fit as they will be walking up and down the ward during their shift.
She says volunteering at the hospital as a Hospital Friend will be immensely rewarding. “At the end of the shift (as a FED) I have the satisfaction of feeling I have made a positive difference to another person.”
If you would like to apply to be a Hospital Friend at Taupo¯ Hospital inpatient ward, please fill out the online application form at www.join. stjohn.org.nz or telephone 0800 St John 0800 78 5646.