It is amazing the fantastic initiatives that we New Zealanders can get established. Providing support groups and information for our communities can change the impact of Gut diseases. This year Foodstuffs (South Island) Community Trust has provided a grant to the gut foundation for three years to engage with and support other regions to establish their own Gut Health Hubs.
Here in Canterbury we have been operating a Gut health hub for 25 years. You can read more about the work the hub has done in the about us section of the website. An important element of the success of the Christchurch Gut health Hub has been the collaboration between the community, Medics and researchers enabling prioritisation of projects that need more funding to improve health outcomes.
We plan to work with interested communities throughout the South Island to develop their own Gut health Hubs. Funds raised in each region would stay in that region and go to local endeavours such as equipment to improve gut health services, education to enable the community to have more knowledge of their Gut health and research that will improve future gut health outcomes. Our experience and seed funding could enable efficiencies such as using a common web platform with regional pages, shared ideas for media campaigns and promote collaboration between the community and gut health medics and researchers locally and nationally.
This is a new initiative that looks to take a community owned and driven approach to create better Gut health outcomes in local communities.
Contact us by email margaret@thegut.org.nz or call us on 021 0241 3305 or Download our Flyer here!