Help Chinderah Hub

By Jo Kennett

THE CHINDERAH Hub has provided vital support to 3,500 Tweed residents and 1,500 more who have relocated here, and helped distribute around $200,000 in funding. Now they are looking for donations to keep their doors open.

Kay Redmond and Sandy Gilbert have been running the hub since March 2022 with the help of some big-hearted volunteers, but many residents are still in need of support.

“Government currently doesn’t have a longterm solution for permanent residential park occupants who face recurring home inundation, an ageing demographic which struggles to access affordable housing and also has to contend with poor infrastructure,” Kay said. “We assist these people who have been forgotten and who are some of the most vulnerable people in our community.

“We are operating and funded through the NSW Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) North Coast but the funding runs out on August 31.”

The hub provides support including advocacy, a low-cost food pantry, material aid, as well as facilitating donations and emotional support and counselling.

“We have free food support as well from Bakers Delight and Coles Second Bite,” Kay told The Weekly.

“We are a fully registered not-for-profit and our aim is to get funding to keep the doors open.”

Of the eight caravan parks at Chinderah, seven were badly flooded and the hub is still seeing between 200 and 250 residents a month.

“Last month alone we had a brand new intake of 53 people — referrals from other agencies — through the doors,” Kay said.

“Service NSW has attended for grants recently and this month I’ve already had 23 new people and we also have people coming from Murwillumbah for food support.

“The $20,000 grants didn’t go a long way so all the money they had has gone to fixing their homes and some just can’t put food on the table.

“Even people that were insured, off the back of COVID and the cost of living increases, not everyone has their homes fixed and it’s all going into that.

“We are 16 months post-flood and yesterday Service NSW were here and we had four new people apply for grants.

“What they need to supply to apply for grants is not always an easy task.

“A lot in the parks are older with limited computer experience so much of their evidence was on paper and was lost in the floods, which made it a lot harder,” she said.

“The younger ones have records on computers which makes it easier.

“Sixteen months post-flood, people believe everything is back to normal and, though we do have people that are completely recovered, some are only just starting the process.”

Kay said the hub wanted to be a permanent fixture in the community for future events.

“We are an outreach post and collaborate with government and other agencies so we have services which attend the hub,” she said.

“We collaborate with the Red Cross on the Community Resilience Teams to be flood-ready and we also facilitate grants through Rotary and Lions clubs.

“We have numerous letters of support saying that if we weren’t here, they don’t know what they would have done.

“Residents would have had to travel to Ballina, Lismore and Murwillumbah, but a lot of them lost their cars.”

Kay says the hub is now a community centre with cooking ladies “that have been cooking for us since the start” .

“It’s been a community effort and it’s extremely fulfilling,” she said.

“It really is a blessing to help and support the community and be able to give back.

“Sandy and I were honoured with a Paul Harris Fellow which usually is only awarded to Rotarians.

“Sandy’s advocacy work is through the roof; it’s a completely voluntary role and she is a phenomenal lady. She has been an advocate for park residents for a long time.”

The hub needs donations so they can keep the doors open.

“To stay in this location is 80k,” Kay said. “It’s a lot of small donations but every little bit will help.”

To donate to this worthy cause, please call Kay on 0476 917 380.