Curtain bank brings warmth to families
More than 50 Porirua families will be warmer after receiving free, lined curtains for their homes from the Wellington Curtain Bank.
Run by Sustainability Trust, the curtain bank provides the free service for community service card holders. The curtains are upcycled from donated curtains and fabric and made to measure for each family.
After a Curtain Bank drive at Porirua Whanau Centre in March, 53 families put in orders for curtains for their living rooms, and for their bedrooms if there were children, elderly or people with health issues.
Cheryllynn Johnson from Takapuwahia picked her curtains up last week, for the home she shares with her daughter, 23.
‘‘I’m rapt about getting the curtains. It’s freezing in my house. I’ve got a large living room with windows all along one side, so it’s shockingly cold.’’
Johnson said she had to take her old curtains down because they were falling apart and as she had health issues the new curtains were much appreciated and needed.
Pascaline Philipo got curtains for her Waitangirua home, in which she and eight others live. It is so cold she’s been using a hot water bottle to stay warm.
Tu Ngatupuna lives in a Housing NZ property with her husband, brother-in-law and 13-yearold granddaughter and is making a big effort to keep the whole family healthy.
The living room has a woodburner, but it only has net curtains hung on a wire to keep in the heat.
The family sometimes sleeps in the living room because the bedrooms are too cold, but Ngatupuna said she was hoping the lined curtains would warm the house up.
Curtain Bank co-ordinator Lynley Wilson said the lined curtains would help create warmer, drier, healthier homes.
‘‘It gives people that have cold homes, but no money to improve them, a small action to take. It empowers them to make their homes a bit better for their families.’’