Following the devastation of Cyclone Gabrielle in February of 2023, Taradale Anglican Church stepped up as a space of community support. In the immediate aftermath, All Saints' Church became a distribution hub and support agency for food, water and those who found themselves with little. This slowly morphed into the capacity to assist in distributing funding to community groups and organisations to help them recover. This was especially focused on school communities, including Puketapu, Bledisloe, and Pakowhai.
In more recent time, as the recovery has continued, Taradale Anglican has moved into the space of fund holders and administrators, particularly for the community of Pakowhai. In a similar way to trusts in Puketapu and Eskdale, the church came to hold the funds for the Pakowhai Funding Committee. Drawn together primarily from the Hawke's Bay Funders Forum, over $600,000 has been donated to be distributed to the community of Pakowhai, and following the most recent grant round, over $400,000 have been given in direct grants to those who need support. These grants come alongside events and infrastructure that are designed to help restore a sense of community to the area.
Taradale Anglican would like to thank the Hawke's Bay Funders Forum, the Pakowhai Funding Committee and the shared services team at the Diocese of Waiapu who have made the church's part in this work possible. As the primary point of communication for the granting process, the Vicar of Taradale, the Reverend Alan Burnett, reports of the blessing it is to be able to hear people's difficult stories and to be able to help them, even in a small way, through the provision of a grant. This has been one of those times that the larger diocesan structure of the church has helped the local expression step up in a way it never could have without support.
Comments