Starship Foundation honoured to attend Koroneihana
It was a special honour to be invited to attend this year’s Koroneihana and meet so many tamariki enthusiastic about healthcare!
It was the 17th annual coronation in honour of Kiingi Tuuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII, held at Tuurangawaewae Marae and the Starship Foundation’s first time in the expo tent.
Over the course of the weekend, we travelled to Ngaaruawaahia to be part of this joyous and important event, sharing our kaupapa of better health and brighter futures for all tamariki in Aotearoa.
We were joined by some of our clever colleagues from Starship Child Health who brought so many interactive activities to engage tamariki and whaanau.
Erin Carn-Bennett and Alison Cartwright from the Douglas Starship Simulation Programme team brought their Sim Baby and Sim Junior - fascinating life-like manikins used for clinician training and education. Many budding doctors and nurses loved practising their CPR skills on the manikins and the sim team shared how they train clinicians so they are prepped and ready when a real life emergency happens.
Nicky Woollaston from the Starship Play Specialist team demonstrated some of the toys children use in hospital to help keep them calm ahead of big operations or injections, including a “buzzy bee” machine which creates vibrations that confuse the nerve endings, so children don’t feel the pain in the same way
Tamariki were lining up to be part of a Starship Foundation colouring competition and we enjoyed connecting with so many whaanau and hearing about their Koroneihana and Starship stories.
The Starship Foundation is committed to funding equity programmes aiming to balance the scales and ensure all children in New Zealand have access to world-class healthcare regardless of their ethnicity, where they live, or their family circumstance.
We loved being part of this kaupapa, and we hope to be back next year.
