The September earthquake stimulated a group in Selwyn area to get together and plan how we might prepare for a future event that required lots of local initiative. At that stage we were thinking of street by street, neighbour by neighbour – using Dave Wilkinson’s skills and experience in leading Neighbourhood support groups across Canterbury.
February’s earthquakes took us further. A community response grew from the desperate needs of people, especially in Eastern suburbs of Christchurch. We asked ‘what can we do?’ Churches, individuals and other groups eg Darfield Lions met and established an informal action group. We called ourselves Malvern Community Help.
Since then we have delivered a multitude of meals, food – normally donated by people just like yourself- blankets and warm clothing, heaters etc. Our input also included shovelling the silt and other practical tasks. We work with Christchurch City Council’s emergency operations team and distribution centres operating usually out of local churches in the Eastern Suburbs.
All of this activity has taught us many things. How good it would have been to be able to send emails (or text messages) to varying groups of people offering –
- to co-ordinate their organisation’s response
- their driving skills,
- their baking, frozen meals (1500 donated from Christchurch prison and delivered by Malvern Community help, to meals on wheels),
- to shovel silt,
- their unique resources- eg chiller van from Malvern Butchery
- assist in establishing Neighbourhood Support groups in Christchurch
- etc.
We also learned that in the event of a deep snow, it would be good to know where local resources are and people with specific needs live. The system here allows those with access rights to view the information on maps or downloaded spreadsheets.
We needed this internet based system then. We can now send those emails, send text messages and print out lists of people with varied skills, needs, resources.
The recent snow allowed us to test our progress towards neighbour and community responses. We used our network that is stored in this system to ensure that elderly were contacted appropriately- prior to and after the snow. All those contacted were extremely grateful.
February and subsequent shakes have only strengthened our resolve to make a difference, one street at a time. Canterbury’s earthquakes have taught us, through our involvement in Malvern Community Help that there are times when the authorities are swamped by need and emergency. In those times, communities that know each other will do better than those who start from scratch. This system facilitates community strengthening in many ways. Look around and feel free to join in. You are welcome.
The system is built on community development principles- it is based on community owned and managed information – relating to resources, skills, needs and community. This is truly bottom up, not top down.
In the event of a major emergency, information here would be made available to appropriate authorities for use during that emergency. These authorities include Fire service, Red Cross and of course Civil Defense.
Feel free to contact us by using the response box below.