Mahana Stories

This last few months has led us to reflect
on what’s important - people, our
health. Also to question what’s not
important - consumerism and buying
things that we’ve been living without.
Ramesh
COVID has shown us how weak humans
are. We need to take better care of
ourselves, each other, the environment.
We’re all connected - animals, nature
and the human race and we all need
to contribute.
Helping older people is ingrained in our
culture, but there are a lot of older
people here who don’t have their
family around to support them. Some
are being exploited by their children or
the people they are living with and
don’t know where to get help.
Some really struggled with the basics of
life - they couldn’t access their money
as they didn’t have online banking. It
was very difficult - they had the money
but they couldn’t pay for anything. It’s
not just about knowing how to use
technology, there’s a cost to digital
connection and not everyone has that.
It’s been very important that we check
in on people and make sure they’re ok.
For myself, because I know what
knowledge is available and how to
access it, I’ve used this time and
learned a lot.
Older people have time and
wisdom and we want to share our
skills. We’re always thinking ‘where
can we contribute.’
We’ve shared an
experience - something
mutual to connect about
and that’s important but
in order to connect you
have to first feel safe.