Over 60 community volunteers organised by the Aotearoa Tongan Response Group descended on South Auckland yesterday. 55 flood stricken homes in Mangere were visited, assessed and the rubbish removed to the tip over two days. This was a community led response to the aftermath of the Auckland floods to help ease the pain and stress in the community.

ATRG Chair MP Anahila Kanogata’a-Suisuiiki says “It was so humbling to see so many of our community answer the call for volunteers. We even had the Maui Fusifonua Tongan Rugby League teams currently touring here helping out. We were overwhelmed by the response and I want to thank them all and especially my team.” The ATRG operations was based at a health and social services community provider called Akiheuho on 25 Princes Street, Otahuhu. The CEO of Akiheuho Mr Makahokovalu Pailate is also a member of the ATRG board. He said “I was honoured to be part of the community led initiative. This is not the first time either. The ATRG previously led the community engagement drive for the COVID19 vaccination and disaster relief efforts for the Tongan eruption last year. I was the site manager for that and we sent 90 containers of relief aid to Tonga.”

Local community led and ethnic specific responses to disasters, crises and emergencies can be very effective. They know their own communities intimately and can engage easily with their own people. However, it was a struggle because of the lack of available resources and funding to assist. Community groups often have to dig into their own pockets or scrounge around for support. The group made a call for people to donate their time, trucks, trailers and equipment and they came. Things could have been better had we been able to access some funding quickly to help with the costs of feeding and supporting our teams of volunteers for things like petrol or safety gear.

However, despite the challenges Anahila says: “To see the happiness and relief on peoples faces when we arrived to take away the rubbish was heart-warming. To physically move the rubbish is one thing but to also be able to take it away to the tip with our trucks and trailers was a huge relief and help for flood stricken homes.”

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