This is hard, but after a lot of consideration and soul searching, we have had to make some serious decisions on continuing under the new Covid-19 Traffic Light System.
The health and safety of our friends, whānau and you, our fantastic crew, is of the utmost importance. And that also includes our mental health and well-being. Under this new Orange Traffic Light system, we would be practising discrimination and causing mental harm to a group of people who have exercised their right to decline a medical procedure, that is, declining to be vaccinated.
This does not sit well with either of us. It does not support the environment that we nurture in our classes, and it also does not support the mental health well-being of our community.
We both believe that Zumba is not just about the physical activity of dancing and getting a workout. It's about a group of friends sharing a laugh, feeling comfortable enough to make an ass of themselves and knowing you can do that in a safe environment. We both teach Zumba because it helps our own mental well-being. Many times, we have felt depressed, alone, and just struggling to get through the day. Knowing that we have a Zumba class to teach while feeling like this can make things worse. But everything changes once the music starts and we see you guys smiling back at us. We feel so much better by the end of class, and we know that many of you have had that same experience.
As our country moves into this new traffic light system, we as a community need to show compassion to a group of people who will be struggling physically, emotionally and financially as their freedoms are taken away from them. We would be compounding their problems if we also told them they could not attend our classes.
We recognise that for many, it's easy to say "they should just get the jab, it's safe, they're just being silly and putting our community at risk".
But, we have to remember the following, we can not and should not make generalised assumptions of why people choose not to be vaccinated. Regardless of the crazy anti-vax conspiracy theories many of us see on social or broadcast media. We do not know everyone's social background, medical history or individual experiences. We all have the right to decline medical treatment for whatever reason.
The new Traffic Light System will limit the movement of the unvaccinated "for the safety of Aotearoa"; combine this with ongoing vaccinations, and there should be no reason for any of us to continue this anger and discrimination towards anyone who has made this choice.
So we must take a stand in what we believe. The discrimination of people who have exercised the same right we all have to decline medical treatment is not something we want to encourage.
We also recognise the seriousness of this pandemic and want to make sure we are abiding by the Governments regulations. To this end, we have decided to take the only option available to us that will allow us to maintain our integrity, remain true to our beliefs and uphold the safety of our community and Aotearoa.
As of Friday, 3 December, we will no longer be running in-person classes under the current Orange status. We will re-establish our online live streaming classes again and will do so for as long as we can or until the status changes to Green. At this point, we are unsure how we will be structuring the financial commitments of this decision. In previous lockdowns, we have provided these classes for free but, in this current situation, we would not be able to do that in the long term.
Because we are unsure of how long this status will continue, we understand that you might want to attend other Zumba classes during this time that are using the Vaccine Pass. If you have an active pass with us and would like a refund on the number of classes remaining on that pass, please let us know, and we will issue a refund.
It's sad, but we have to be true to our beliefs, demonstrate kindness and uphold the safety of our community, in the physical, mental and in our hearts.
He aroha whakatō, he aroha puta mai - If kindness is sown, then kindness you shall receive.
