Auckland Anniversary weekend, and Valentine’s Day. Dates that should have been filled with celebration this year turned out to be the beginning of desperate times for many New Zealanders. These dates marked a tragic start to the year with lives lost and properties destroyed - when flash flooding and Cyclone Gabrielle hit the North Island in quick succession.
The need was great and Taskforce Kiwi - Aotearoa’s first veteran-led, not-for-profit, disaster relief organisation - quickly mobilised to assist.
Taskforce Kiwi (TFK) was born in 2022. Its mission is “to utilise the skills and experience of defence and emergency services veterans to help communities across New Zealand recover from natural disasters, and help them get back on their feet sooner”.
TFK provides help through impact and damage assessment, debris clearance and disposal, emergency construction and repair, volunteer management, plant operations and co-ordination, logistics support and distribution, water, sanitation and hygiene, first aid and medical support, mental health and psychological first aid, and evacuee and refuge co-ordination. Since January this year TFK has deployed 205 volunteers, who have completed over 5,000 hours of skilled labour in Auckland and Hawke’s Bay, the equivalent of over $275,000 worth of work. This has included 50 international volunteers from similar organisations in Australia, Canada, the UK and the US. TFK has also deployed 14 volunteers to assist with flood relief in Australia, and deployed a team to Canada to assist with wildfire relief in Nova Scotia.
Richard Adams is at the helm as national director, with a board of heavy weights including Bevan Killick, chair of the Defence Employment Support Council, Stephanie Rotarangi, deputy chief executive with Fire and Emergency New Zealand, and Brigadier Neville Reilly (retired), the former NZ Ambassador to Afghanistan.
Richard has observed that while the veterans are providing invaluable skills and support when it is needed the most, they themselves are getting something out of it as well – a sense of purpose.
It’s a sentiment that rings true for lawyers like Campbell Pentney, who are giving their time for Bell Gully’s Pro Bono Programme. Campbell assisted Taskforce Kiwi on its trust deed and charity registration.
“These guys are doing the hard yards helping in the most difficult of circumstances, like in the Hawkes Bay after the recent cyclone. We’ve helped them on the legal side, but honestly it is incredibly rewarding just playing a small part in supporting their efforts.”
Just because you take off a uniform, doesn’t mean that you stop serving