World Asthma Day 2020

World Asthma Day is the Foundation’s annual education campaign for one of New Zealand’s most prevalent respiratory illnesses: asthma. Each year, the campaign takes place on the second Tuesday of May, with this year’s campaign being held on May 5th.

Usually, our World Asthma Day campaign consists of educational activities which are sent to schools across New Zealand. However, this year presented some rather unique challenges, so we decided to go digital with a day of online events to engage our respiratory community stuck at home during lockdown.

As part of the Foundation’s ‘World Asthma Day - Live from your Living Room’ event, the Foundation hosted a range of Facebook livestream videos throughout May 5th, with over 500 people signing up to take part.

The day started with a live broadcast of the Foundation’s educational asthma musical, Sailor the Pufferfish, performed by educator and

entertainer Chris Lam Sam. This was followed by a crafting tutorial from the Foundation’s resident Asthma Fairy, Kikorangi, who demonstrated a few respiratory related arts and crafts. After this, the Foundation hosted a livestream Q&A session with respiratory specialist Dr James Fingleton, who answered real-time asthma related queries from our online respiratory community. Lastly, there was a live prize draw for the campaign’s ‘Donate my Coffee’ competition, which concluded the day’s events.

The Foundation’s World Asthma Day online event was overwhelmingly well-received by the online respiratory community, with the livestream videos having been viewed over 10,000 times since airing. The Foundation is proud to have been able to provide a day of education and entertainment, and highlight the importance of asthma management, entirely remotely through our digital channels. Most importantly, we were able to have this message reach those who need it most, despite the unfortunate circumstances of COVID-19.

Introducing Kikorangi the Asthma Fairy

During lockdown, the Foundation introduced Kikorangi the Asthma Fairy, a new initiative to engage children with their respiratory health in a fully digital space. This enabled us teach kids about their asthma while maintaining lockdown restrictions, and helped to entertain the young ones for a short time to give their parents and caregivers a break!

Below are some of the results from Kikorangi’s crafting sessions that were sent in to our Facebook page. The full crafting with Kikorangi series of videos are available to view on demand on the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation Facebook page.