Rotarians from around the South Island and in particular Canterbury, have joined forces to help turn houses into homes for six families and two individuals displaced by flooding events in Westport and the Buller District.

Article by Assistant Governor 9970 Karen Stade

A Rotary Westport Flood Relief Fund established in the wake of the flood last year, and administered through Westport Rotary and its president Peter Campbell, raised more than $82,500. This has so far supported six flood recovery-related projects in the town in which Rotarians from clubs across the West Coast, Nelson-Tasman, Marlborough and Canterbury regions have provided hands on help.

Recently, with the help of Rotary clubs from around the country, particularly clubs in the South Island, more than 20 people have been able to move out of motel or hostel accommodation into new homes, complete with furniture. Late last year five relocatable houses were moved to Westport and established in Stafford Street, along with three new homes in Queen Street.

Rotarians gave 500 hours of voluntary time to repaint the interiors of four of the five Stafford Street houses. Rotary then agreed to supply those selected to move into the houses with good quality second hand furniture to replace the furniture they had lost in the floods.

The first two house-lots of furniture, funded by flood relief funds raised by Lions Clubs throughout New Zealand, were delivered to the Queen Street properties on 15 March by Malcolm Currie of Motueka Rotary. On Monday 28 March 'Man and a Van' (removalist company) delivered to Stafford Street four house-lots of furniture bought through the Rotary fund. The total value of this project to date is around $10,000.

The three organisations collaborated to supply house-lots of furniture for people displaced by the Westport and Buller floods.

Past Rotary District 9970 Governor Gary Hopkinson (Greymouth Rotary), who has been co-ordinating the projects, said everyone deserved to have somewhere they can call home and Rotary was pleased to be able to assist the Westport community by helping some flood victims who might otherwise have fallen through the cracks. “It is wonderful to see them move out of temporary accommodation and back into their homes or into new houses. This is a heart-warming project for Rotarians to be involved in and we have been pleased to work with other community organisations like Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore, and Lions to achieve this.”