Stephon is a caring and humble man with a beautiful 14-month-old baby daughter. He suffers from a rare bone disease – Multiple Hereditary Exostoses, resulting in 35 surgeries. His love for his daughter, music and helping others keep Stephon going. Stephon experiences high levels of pain daily and occasional limited mobility. Multiple Hereditary Exostoses means Stephon has different sized bony growths as well as a buckled arm and bowed legs. This makes it both painful and frus

Introducing our Community Relations Advisor Patch Waters, who makes the transition to IF easy!  Every day Manawanui staff strive to live our values, “We deliver delight” “People are really important to us”, “We challenge ourselves to go beyond” and “We make it easy”.  The introduction of the new role of Community Relations Advisor further enhances those values for our newest customers.   Patcharee (Patch) Waters has been with Manawanui for just over 2 years, starting as a Cus

Kaupapa (Project Purpose): To strengthen Tainui Service Providers in the Māori Disability Sector through whanaungatanga, the sharing of information and working collaboratively together, to achieve the best outcome possible for whanau. In May, members of the Manawanui Relationships team were invited to present to the Waikato Māori Disability Network Hui. The network consists of representatives from the various health services that support the wider Waikato/Bay of Plenty area s

Simon presents at a Manawanui Meets community meeting Simon Anderson started life at Manawanui as an IT Project Manager, and then a move to Marketing Team Manager. But this role has rapidly expanded, and he recently assumed additional responsibility for Business Development, with both the Relationships team and the Projects team reporting to him. However, Simon is probably most famous for his weekly appearances on the Manawanui Facebook Livestreams, where literally hundreds o

Introducing Noah Penny, the roller-skater and skier extraordinaire. Noah has severe autism, dyspraxia, epilepsy and is non-verbal – however he does not let this stop him!With amazing balance and a determined attitude, Noah has previously taken part in the Special Olympics. His passion is skiing, and he loves the sense of freedom it gives him. The season is very short, with only 6 Special Olympic training days at SnowPlanet each year as well as ‘Snow Camp’ - a preparation week

Rebecca McPhail on left, Sharla King Centre and Simon Anderson on right Introducing the Manawanui Projects Team I recently sat down with Simon Anderson who heads the Project Team at Manawanui – a team tasked with looking at ways Manawanui can improve their service offering to both current and new customers. Their mandate covers everything from products and services, through to Pilot projects with new customer bases who could benefit from Manawanui services. It also includes p