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National | Grassroots

Ngāti Porou descendants to bring more focus to grassroots rugby - 4:30pm Newsbreak

- Two Ngāti Porou descendants have been appointed to New Zealand Rugby board roles. Former Ngāti Porou East Coast Bailey Mackey has been appointed to the New Zealand Rugby board, while Cushla Tangaere-Manuel CEO of East Coast Rugby has been appointed to the Māori Rugby Board. Mackey plans to bring more focus to grassroots rugby.

- A South Auckland drop-in-centre is anticipating a large number of homeless and rough sleepers returning to her doors post-lockdown. Debbie Munroe of 'Waka of Caring' was forced to close her South Auckland service at Alert Level 4, but continued supporting families and homeless into emergency accommodation. During that time a thousand motel rooms and units across the country housed the homeless, provided by various government agencies and backed by a $100 million in funding. Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is praising the coalition governments efforts around homelessness during Lock-down but says the focus needs to be on long-term housing.

- Taranaki black belt Shane Wallace-Hoskin, who runs a martial arts centre, has been offering free lessons on Facebook several times a week since lockdown began. He says it is an innovative way to keep tamariki fit during the lockdown. Just within 4 weeks, his online tutorials have grown from 11 students to 2,000 worldwide.