The widespread devastation and heartache caused by Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 left the region of Hawke’s Bay, its communities and residents completely ravaged, with many struggling to rebuild.
To help support the region’s unprecedented relief effort, Hawke’s Bay Foundation set up a special ‘Cyclone Relief Fund’ to funnel donations direct to overwhelmed welfare agencies on the ground, that needed it most.
Within one week of donations streaming into our Cyclone Relief Fund, Hawke’s Bay Foundation’s Distributions Committee approved and distributed the first round of funds to frontline charities on a greatest needs basis.
$3.1 million was donated from our generous community, and all funds were distributed by the end of 2023, to over 100 charitable organisations and groups working in the cyclone response space.
Hawke’s Bay Foundation and the Hawke’s Bay community have been so grateful for the generosity from our donors. No admin fee was taken from the Cyclone Relief Fund, meaning every cent of this fund was distributed to help cyclone recovery efforts.
The first response stage of our distribution of funds was focused on supporting the urgent needs of charitable organisations working in the cyclone response space. We then moved into the second recovery stage of our distributions where we began working collaboratively on strategic initiatives to support Hawke’s Bay on the road to recovery. The third resiliency stage was focused on long-term support for the mental health of the region to ensure a strong and resilient community moving forward.
Throughout 2023 as we worked on distributing the Cyclone Relief Fund, we worked closely with other funders within Hawke’s Bay to ensure the most effective collaborative support was being offered to the region. A special mention to our partnership with the Evergreen Foundation in getting crucial distributions out as quickly as possible to where they were needed the most.
We worked with Evergreen Foundation to support silt clearance from residential and community spaces. Funds were distributed for machinery and fuel to support the ‘Hawke’s Bay Clean-Up crew’ and ‘River Of Silt’ groups who provide co-ordinated assistance of silt removal across Hawke’s Bay. These groups were also removing gib board and spraying timber framing on houses to prevent further decay and mould occurring later in the homes. Funds were also distributed towards training digger drivers to complete the silt removal work, and at the same time offer long-term job prospects. This initiative showed our commitment to supporting the huge clean-up effort in Hawke’s Bay post cyclone.
Hawke’s Bay Foundation worked with five groups on the ground within Hawke's Bay who were supporting individuals and households with financial assistance in some of the worst impacted communities including: Wairoa, Esk Valley, Pakowhai, Puketapu and Central Hawke’s Bay. This initiative saw us working closely with connected community groups who assessed households and provided essential grants to those in need, to help get people back on their feet.
Mental wellbeing and psychological support following one of the region’s worst natural disasters was a key area of focus for Hawke’s Bay Foundation. Through our Cyclone Relief Fund we pledged $100,000 to assist the work of several groups in the mental health space, including the Rural Support Trust and Mates 4 Life Hawke's Bay. Our support saw Mates 4 Life take on more staff to promote workshops on suicide prevention to ensure the most vulnerable were being reached. Hawke’s Bay Foundation was also proud to fund speakers such as Sir John Kirwan and Dr Lucy Hone over the recovery months, to help connect communities, discuss mental health and promote long-term resiliency.
We worked closely with the Evergreen Foundation to support the Hawke’s Bay region collaboratively post cyclone. We worked on several funding initiatives including the HB Laundry Network, Neela Neela (volunteer food network), Dinner Club Pakowhai, Farmer Community Connect Days, Dr Lucy Hone sessions for mental health support as well as the funding of silt removal volunteer clean-up groups. We appreciate the collaborative approach to funding that has come out of the cyclone and hope it has gone someway to be able to make the biggest impact within our region.
