In February the NCW Manawatu decided to concentrate 2025 on these questions:

• What are the problems for new immigrants to our area?
• Are there ways in which we can contribute to assisting their needs?

For the March meeting, two new members -- Lana Daichman and Beth Weir -- spoke of their journeys.

Lana Daichman was born in Russia, then moved to Poland then Israel where she lived for many years. She studied Hebrew, gained a doctorate and had rewarding employment as a researcher. She moved to New Zealand in the last four months with her family so that her husband could accept a position at the Palmerston North hospital. Presently, as a full-time housewife, she has found the lifestyle change and isolation to be very difficult and has also had difficulty with job opportunities locally. She enjoyed practising her English at the meeting.

Next, Beth Weir reviewed her experiences resettling in New Zealand from a 30 year-stint in a very diverse South Carolina and then Seattle, Washington. In these two places, she noted that what she expected was very different to what she experienced. The biggest factors were differences in language, education and housing, as well as feeling personally isolated.

At the April meeting, we hosted Indra and Bishnu Dulal, Bhutanese settlers who arrived in 2009 from a Nepalese camp, where they were exiled because of their Hindu, Nepalese ancestry. During their 16 years at the camp, Indra worked as an English teacher. With their four children and wife’s parents, the family obtained Quota Refugee status to arrive in New Zealand. Indra has been an untiring Bhutanese liaison, interpreter, JP and community leader (RIMA). He highlighted the colder climate, unavailability of Nepalese food and undecipherable English accents as three large difficulties. Bishnu discussed the difficulties of learning to use electrical appliances and obtaining the food ingredients that they enjoyed.

Dr. Fatima Junaid, Senior Lecturer, Massey University

The AGM meeting will be introduced with a talk from another member, Dr. Fatima Junaid, who will speak about her research on former refugee women entrepreneurs, analysing enabling and detrimental factors affecting their well-being and success. This will be followed by the results of another project focused on online hate speech towards migrant women of colour, and found that the multiple jeopardies of patriarchy, social structures and whiteness hindered entrepreneurial success.

Later in May, NCW Manawatu and Graduate Women Manawatu are hosting five women councillors (Horizons and PNCC) for a panel session in the local library. This is intended to highlight local elections and encourage local women to stand, while being aware of the pitfalls and benefits of the role.

To read more articles from The Circular (March-April 2025) issue 651, click on the tag below.