Following this year’s funding round where 78 charities applied for financial assistance through Hawke’s Bay Foundation, 53 were approved and today received a collective total of over $177,000.

Hawke’s Bay Foundation Distributions Committee Chair Sarah Mulcahy is pleased with the funding round’s steady growth.

“As ever, we are very grateful to our donors who trust us to make the right decisions as to where the need is greatest. This is the culmination of a huge collective effort from our Distributions Committee whose wealth of knowledge in the charitable sector determines where the funding will go. We look forward to following up with our successful applicants next year to hear of their successes and challenges.”

Not-for-profit charity organisations are historically the unsung heroes of any community, providing critical support in places government funding does not extend. Hawke’s Bay is no exception where the work of Flaxmere based Wharariki Trust has been winning praise for helping whanau stay warmer, drier and safer through its Healthy Homes programme.

Wharariki Trust founder Ana Apatu says with the continued support of Hawke’s Bay Foundation, critical repair work has been carried out on over 70 DHB referred houses in the past 12 months from Wairoa to Takapau.

“At times there are up to 15 family members living in one house. This has become more prevalent due to Covid-19 and the housing shortage. During our critical repair work we have our builder assess those repairs categorized as: critical, urgent and non urgent. We have a capped amount of funding per house and make every dollar stretch as far as we can.

“We target homes where there are sick tamariki and are extremely grateful to Hawke’s Bay Foundation for helping us achieve a healthier Hawke’s Bay community.”

Other areas of the community to benefit from Foundation funding this year include: Napier Family Centre’s child and youth counselling programme, Barnardos’ Napier children’s contact service, the Cancer Society’s three times a week shuttle bus service, Cranford Hospice’s family support team, Te Mata Park Trust, CHB Parent’s Centre and Hastings and Napier Riding for the Disabled.

With today marking the start of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, this morning’s funding from Hawke’s Bay Foundation will be a welcome drop in the donation bucket. The $4,000 will help keep the rubber on the road for the region’s three times a week shuttle bus service to Palmerston North for cancer patients. In the last financial year, Cancer Society Hawke’s Bay undertook 565 round trips to Palmerston North and covered 48,615 kilometres for cancer patients to receive critical radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy treatment.

Cancer Society’s Sushmita Chakravarty says the continuation of the door-to-door free of charge service is very much dependent on the generous support of the community.

“Last year due to Covid-19 our major fundraising event Relay for Life was affected and this year our Daffodil Day street appeal was cancelled , which has affected our income again. Due to ongoing support from Hawke’s Bay Foundation we can continue to provide our life-sustaining shuttle service to the community.”

Cancer is the leading cause of death in New Zealand with diagnoses projected to increase by 50% by 2035 to around 37,000 new cases per year. Sushmita says until Hawke’s Bay can offer full cancer treatment facilities, the shuttle service will forge on.

“Even during lockdown level 4, we were getting new referrals for cancer patients as cancer carries on – it doesn’t stop just because there is a pandemic so our driving service continued. In the next few years the demand for the service will increase and we will be dependent on the support of our community and funders like Hawke’s Bay Foundation for their all important donations.”

Click here for a full list of Hawke’s Bay Foundation 2021 funding recipients.