The kindness of the community has been extremely heart-warming, says Mayor Rehette Stoltz.

“Thank you to everyone who has been donating and volunteering.

“As we move into the recovery period, we know the best way to donate is by making a financial donation to the Disaster Relief Trust so we can then match the specific needs of our residents after Cyclone Gabrielle,” says Mayor Rehette Stoltz.

Emergency food packages and water have been distributed to isolated areas of our community. Road access is being restored to our region and the internet and cellphones are working so we are communicating with our community again.

“We have been blown away by immediate donations, and at this stage, the clothes and food we are receiving do not match our whanau needs and we do not have the staffing to sort through boxes and boxes of donated items.

“Anyone who wants to volunteer, please go to the Gisborne Volunteer Centre at 10am each weekday morning and they will organise tasks from there.”

“Otherwise please, financial donations only to help our community.”

Donations to the Disaster Relief Trust can be made to:

Account Name: Gisborne District Council

Account: 03 0638 0502288 00

For overseas payments - SWIFT code: WPACNZ2W

Reference: Disaster

1. If you’d like to apply for assistance, please apply here. Each application will be assessed by an advisory group to make sure the criteria are met.
2. From there, funds will be distributed from the Mayoral Relief Fund first as this has $1M funds contributed by central Government and then supplemented by the Disaster Relief Trust donations.
3. The Disaster Relief Trust is a registered Charity.

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