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Kiwi member's well being!
posted by Balifly on Sat, 2011-02-26 03:36
How are the members from New Zealand doing?
What can we do to help out?
Regards,
Balifly
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Bronwyn is okay (she lives a bit further south from Christchurch) and busy putting together lunch boxes for the studen rescue workers!
The Big Onigiri.
- Wherever you go, there you are. -
God bless, Bronwyn and the nurturing power of bento.
In 1989, after a massive earthquake hit the San Francisco area, a local food program that provided at-home meals for people with AIDS began providing meals for emergency workers and shelters for displaced people. I volunteered there for several weeks until my own injury prevented me from continuing. Working on the assembly line packaging food helped me to overcome the fear and helplessness I felt after the earthquake. There was an urgency to what we were doing, but the head chef would sometimes come by and remind us to slow down. He said that the neatness and arrangement of the food in the containers was important. As i write this, i realize that we were creating bento boxes for hundreds of people a day.
The only thing they want is money! Sounds mercenary, but there is no shortage of food, clothing, water, etc. Just money to pay for them. Many companies are donating everything from water transport (Fonterra, the big dairy company) to laundry facilities (Fisher & Paykel, who make excellent whiteware), and free LPG refills for barbecue bottles (one of the gas companies), but they can't continue to cover all of the costs indefinitely.
In addition to the Canterbury university students forming a volunteer army to help clean up the lesser damage, a group of farmers is doing a similar thing, and a bunch of helicopter pilots in Rangiora have formed the Rangiora Earthquake Express, helicoptering in hot meals for the rescue worker teams who have arrived from around the world. Locals in Rangiora (close to Christchurch) are cooking the meals and taking them in to be picked up by the helicopters.
The main problem for Christchurch residents is emotional trauma. Many of them are getting out, just not able to cope with the aftershocks. You can just imagine how little sleep they're getting! All of my Christchurch based relatives are OK, and there is only one friend I don't know about yet. Their houses are a bit wrecked though.
On behalf of my country I'd like to thank everyone around the world for the support that's pouring in in the form of donations and practical help. The urban rescue teams are amazing.
Bronwyn
My blog is Food and Shoes
That said, the situation is nothing like as dire as Haiti, for example. We have a good state- and insurance levy- funded earthquake relief fund and we are what Americans would call a socialist country — plenty of state-funded aid for those unable to work for one reason or another. People who have mortgages have home insurance (or they won't get a mortgage). There will be people in bad financial straits; renters without insurance and the many small business owners, but there won't be what you would recognise as poverty. The value of our dollar is taking a hit, but it's still higher than it has been for most of the last 20 years.
You wouldn't believe it, but the Christchurch newspaper managed to continue publishing and delivering to homes without a break, although its office building is unusable. This was a boon to the tens of thousands of households who had no electricity and therefore no other way of knowing what was happening in the rest of the city.
I am glad to hear that Bronwyn is well and uninjured. (-_-)
Efforts are starting to get under way to send help to our stricken friends.
Perhaps we can hold a raffle or something like that here to collect donations.
Regards,
Balifly
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