Joining forces to share out care
‘‘We knock on the door, stand two metres back, and have a chat about things like fire alarms.’’
Timaru firefighters have helped deliver care packages to the region’s migrant families as the need for the parcels doubles.
In the past week the number of care packages given out, provided by the Aoraki Migrant Centre, hasve doubled, mostly for migrant families on temporary visas who can’t get financial assistance from the Government,” Aoraki Migrant Centre manager Katy Houston said.
“We did a few deliveries before [lockdown], like a couple, but this has definitely increased since lockdown,’’ Houstoun said.
“We delivered 34 packages [on Tuesday], up from 15 the previous week.”
Houstoun is on the Neighbourhood Support committee with Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) fire risk manager Craig Chambers, and when he heard how busy the team of two at the Migrant Centre had been he decided to offer help.
The help of the firefighters not only cut down the delivery time, it also provided the opportunity to connect migrants with an important service in New Zealand and make sure they are fire safe and ready for winter.
“There were some activity books for the kids on fire safety,”
Houstoun said.
“We knock on the door, stand two metres back, and have a chat about things like fire alarms.”
The packages are made up of food from Family Works and other items bought with Migrant Centre funding.
“Some people weren’t prepared to stay here for the beginning of winter, or people don’t know how to access things if they haven’t been in New Zealand for a long time, and some people are not using their power because they are concerned about not having the money to pay their power bill so for some people we’ve delivered biobricks, blankets and hot water bottles.”
Houstoun said many families have been referred to them by cultural societies. and that People can also contact them for Covid19 related assistance through the centre’s website and the team will call them to discuss their needs and what help them.
“We’re having a discussion, it’s not just filling in a form, we are having a discussion to find out where they are at and what their needs are,” she said.
Through the deliveries one woman has also organised to have her chimney cleaned is available to because she had been too concerned to use her fire and didn’t know how to access that service.
Fenz will continue to help with the deliveries for the next few weeks while the country finds out more about what is going to happen, Houstoun said.
“It’s so important to work together, we are so grateful to the fire service,” Houstoun said.
“The great thing about our small community is working together and collaborating for the benefit of our community.”
She said they had been touched by offers of help from other agencies and volunteers but at this stage were keeping things small to protect people’s bubbles.