Today marks the beginning of our activities to support the victims and the Muslim communities of Christchurch. The Christchurch Foundation has been receiving money since the Saturday the 16th of March. Primarily the money we have received has been gifted to the Our People, Our City fund.

The Christchurch Foundation makes a commitment to both the recipients and the donors to act with integrity, compassion and respect throughout our journey.

We have received over 18,000 gifts ranging in size from under $1 though to over $2M NZD. Many gifts have been accompanied by messages of love and support. It has been our honour to play a small role to receive these gifts on behalf of the Muslim communities of Christchurch.

There is currently $5M in the Our People, Our City fund in our accounts. If all organisations and individuals that have pledged money to the fund send it, it will contain well over $6M NZD.

Background Information

On the Tuesday following the attacks The Christchurch Foundation met with members of the local Muslim communities, alongside Victim Support, and other organisations.

At that meeting we gave the following assurances:

1. That we would focus on the medium to long term support of the families and the wider Muslim Communities of our city.

2. We would begin the process of distributing the Our People, Our City funds after Victim Support had finished distributing the donations they had received.

3. That local members of the Muslim communities would be involved in making decisions about how the money is best used.

Next Steps

The Foundation has appointed Mr. Raf Manji to chair an Advisory Group. He will be joined by four or five members from Christchurch’s Muslim communities, and a trustee of The Christchurch Foundation. It is their role to make recommendations to our trustees as to the best use of the Our People, Our City fund.

Mr. Manji is currently a Christchurch City Councilor. He has been the Chair of the Finance Committee at the Council for the last 2 terms and is retiring from Council in October. He is a Trustee of the AsiaNZ Foundation and Chair of the United Nations Association of New Zealand Canterbury Charitable Trust. He has also volunteered at the Refugee Resettlement Services, and has been a volunteer at Budget Service Advisors and a Trustee and Mentor at Pillars Inc.

The Advisory Groups terms of reference are:

• Make recommendations as to the best distribution of the funds to address the identified needs of the victims, and the wider communities.

• Ensure that the longer-term needs (with an emphasis on education and training) of the children of those who were killed or severely injured (with lifelong impact), are met.

• Ensure that any distribution covers costs not already covered by The Crown.

• That the Muslim communities’ views are acknowledged and factored into any recommendations.

The names of these appointees will be announced at the end of July. Their first meeting will be in early August.

A range of experts and advisers may be asked to provide additional support to the Advisory Group to support the consideration of specific allocation recommendations.

The high-level outcomes of the recent consultation undertaken with the victims by Victim Support, and other information collated from around the world will also be provided to this group.

“I’m privileged to be asked by the Christchurch Foundation to Chair this advisory board. It is important that the next stage of donated funds distribution involves the affected families and communities. Our job will be to listen, collate that feedback and present a set of recommendations to the trustees of the Foundation that will provide the best possible outcomes for the wider community,’’ said Raf Manji.

Additional Funds

We are pleased to announce that The Christchurch Foundation has also received several large gifts from corporates and individuals outside of this fund. These have donor requests attached to them that require us to distribute the money in certain ways or to certain groups of people. This pool of funds is close to $4M NZD and includes the funds from Victim Support. Distributions will begin in July from these funds. Details of these gifts will be shared publicly as soon as we can.

ENDS

© Scoop Media