The Muslim communities are responding as other faith-based communities. Are responding to this COVID-19-19 severe world
outbreak. All the mosques have been closed down. And we are also fully aware that there are more and more Muslims that
are returning to their home, to New Zealand, and quite a few are coming to Wellington. They are going through issues,
and they're contacting us. They are having problems in finding accommodation. They have to isolate themselves, as per
the government requirement and they need help finding medicines also. As such we are in the process of finding from the
government as to how we can assist as a Muslim community welfare organization; can we go and visit outside a closed door
and provide them with the support in the same time but with distance precautions? We also have very elderly people and
as well there are individuals without a family here.
So, Muslim communities want to find out from the government about how we can help without violating the laws of this
country. As a leading service, we are doing an analysis that what we are going through and what, as a community, we can
do as regards Muslim leadership.
As a result of this isolation, there will be a lot of issues; people will be going through some stress, people will be
going through some more family problems and things like that. So we have to manage this at the mosque level. People have
mental health issues and stress-related issues as well, because of losing money and no work. So, we as a group are
analysing all those things so we can work on a faith community solution. And urgently in the short term, for the Muslims
who are just coming back to Wellington.