Since 2020, New Zealand and the rest of the world have been working to meet the health and economic challenges posed by Covid-19. It has been a daunting time for everyone and as an organisation Arthritis New Zealand has had to adapt to a different environment. Staff have all worked from home and we have been able to maintain service delivery, increasing online activity and using the telephone to counter the inability to physically meet. We have initiated phone calls to all clients and are contacting all support groups to discuss how we can assist them. We have also hosted support group get togethers using our 0800 service and zoom. Please contact us if you would like to set one up.

As with other charities a significant issue for Arthritis New Zealand is a likely drop in income. We have not been able to mail donors for some weeks and understandably Trusts and Foundations are now changing their grant criteria to focus on helping communities recover from the impact of lockdown. However we are hoping that our donors will continue to support us as much as is possible.

We are also going to run a survey to find out what our supporters see as most important for us to provide this will be in our eNews which you should all receive.

Other news and updates are in this newsletter- we hope you this is a useful overview for you.

Regards,

Philip Kearney

Chief Executive

Arthritis New Zealand