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Aitutaki appeal ends with $200k
Air New Zealand launches Aitutaki ‘$1’ fare
Funds to be discussed
Let Aitutaki decide, says MP
Aitutaki appeal ends with $200k
Sat
20 Mar
The Aitutaki Cyclone Appeal (ACA) committee has closed its books after a spectacularly successful month of fundraising.
At Thursday night’s meeting, the committee reported that it had raised $201,000 to date. They have written off $6000 pledged during last month’s radiothon, as callers who made the pledges never delivered.
Secretary Florence Syme-Buchanan said that all the ACA books have been handed over to the auditors, which will review them this week.
“We are hoping that audit will finish reviewing our books by the end of next week, at which time they will be published,” she said.
At Thursday night’s meeting, attendees discussed how best to distribute the funds that the committee has thus far collected.
“We’re still developing a policy – we’re looking at several options,” she said.
Garth Henderson of Aid Management attended the meeting, and has been assigned to the position of committee adviser.
Henderson will assist the committee in deciding the most sensible way to allot funds.
Air New Zealand launches Aitutaki ‘$1’ fare
Sat
20 Mar
Air New Zealand will run a ‘$1 airfare’ campaign next week to assist Aitutaki’s recovery following Cyclone Pat.
According to CI Tourism NZ manager Chris Ingram, NZ residents booking Rarotonga holidays between March 21-29 can also purchase a flight to Aitutaki for $1.
“I know it sounds insane but it is completely true, you can fly from Rarotonga to Aitutaki for one NZ dollar.”
The campaign was announced in NZ and at the opening of the four day CI Tourism Travel Mart conference with New Zealand wholesalers yesterday at the Crown Beach Resort.
The ten wholesalers met with local tourism property operators yesterday and will spend today and tomorrow in Aitutaki visiting accommodation properties there and experiencing the tours and adventure on offer.
The wholesalers put together travel packages that deliver around 70 percent of tourism income, says CI Tourism board chairman Tata Crocombe.
Cyclone Pat’s impact last month could have been significantly more damaging but Ingram says the financial impact of tourists not travelling to Aitutaki is the immediate concern.
“I know people want to help and donations are definitely needed but the very best way people can support the people of Aitutaki, is to go up there for a holiday. Aitutaki is operating as normal with a couple of minor exceptions.”
Originally from Aitutaki, Ingram says the island is hugely reliant on tourism.
“The drop in visitor numbers over the last month is being felt deeply across the island. Hotels don’t need as many staff on duty, the restaurants aren’t as busy, neither are the tour companies taking people fishing and snorkelling.”
Keen to invigorate the recovery CI Tourism approached Air NZ.
We couldn’t have asked for a better response,” said Ingram.
Funds to be discussed
Thu
18 Mar
The Aitutaki Cyclone Appeal Committee has yet to decide how to distribute the $180,000 it has raised since Cyclone Pat hit Aitutaki over a month ago.
Secretary Florence Syme-Buchanan said that ACA still has to reconcile the funds it’s collected locally and from overseas fundraising initiatives.
She also said that not all overseas fundraisers have submitted their proceeds to the central fund.
The Pasifika booth at the weekend, for example, made no contact with the local committee and has not yet tendered the funds it generated at the New Zealand event.
“Quite a bit of the overseas fundraising is using the ACA tagline but they haven’t contacted us or advised us of exactly what they’re doing and what progress they have made,” Syme-Buchanan said.
She said that groups in Melbourne, Brisbane and Tokoroa did get in touch with the local committee, which advised them to deposit takings into the Westpac account to ensure that funds are “managed accountably”, she said.
The committee will be having a meeting tonight at the Aitutaki hostel to discuss overseas fundraising ventures and to determine how best to spend the funds.
Let Aitutaki decide, says MP
Thu
18 Mar
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Habitat for Humanity is offering to build kitset homes– but should government decide what’s best without asking the people who lost their homes in Cyclone Pat last month?
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The Aitutaki people who lost their homes in Cyclone Pat should decide how they rebuild, says Arutanga/Reureu/Nikaupara Member of Parliament Teina Bishop.
He says he understood where mayor Tai Herman was coming from when he declared the island council rejects the Habitat For Humanity NZ offer to build $18,000 kitset Lockwood homes for Aitutaki.
“I share his frustration. Habitat homes are an option but if a home owner is willing to take the time to build a home they want then they should be able to do that. The people should not be tied down to these package deals – I think that’s where the mayor is coming from.”
After the announcement of government’s $9.46 million recovery plan nearly two weeks ago, the people who owned the 72 homes destroyed in the disaster still do not know when the housing project will begin.
“It should not be up to the island council, MPs, or cabinet to decide what homes the people want. It should be up to the home owners to choose. We should only be there to guide them through the options, because at the end of the day it’s their decision,” he says.
Under the plan, government is supposed to be offering the ‘Category 4’ families a $35,000 grant to rebuild.
Bishop, when asked by CI News yesterday, said he did not know how many ‘Category 4’ properties are in his constituency; nor how many of these families want Habitat For Humanity homes.
Despite being promised by recovery minister Wilkie Rasmussen, there has been no list of Category 1 (minimal damage) to Category 4 homes provided to the island council or the MPs.
Bishop is certain of one thing – people want strong, quality homes to be built in the wake of the devastating cyclone.
“We don’t want to build a shelter -- we want to build a home. We don’t want a home that is one step up from a tent. There’s a big difference between a shelter and a home.”
Bishop says the people should be able to take the $35,000 grant and use it to build a home of their choice. He says one of the proposals to government was for those receiving the grant to be able to use it to secure an additional amount from the bank in the form of a loan to use to rebuild.
Bishop says he had a good meeting with the Habitat For Humanity representatives and says they were going to look at how to include basic electrical wiring and plumbing into the homes they are offering.
The MP says if there are other housing options, these should also be put to the people to decide on – including the possibility of a Chinese-built option.
On Tuesday Herman told CI News that the volunteer labour that Habitat is offering is fine, but the island council is opposed to the offer of kitset homes.
Rasmussen has said cabinet is still considering the offer and will probably reach a decision this week.
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