Red Cross stories

Read our stories filled with humanity, resilience and the spirit of volunteering. They show how your support is helping vulnerable people in New Zealand and around the world.

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15 March 2024

Helping generations

Many of the homes in the small Hawke’s Bay community of Waiohiki have stayed in the same family for generations. Kiriana Laison is the fourth generation of her family to live in her home – her children are the fifth. The night flooding from Cyclone Gabrielle arrived, Kiriana was worried she had not only lost her home but her entire community – and her family. 

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9 February 2024

A year on: Full $28.5 million committed to community disaster relief

Update 15: A year after Cyclone Gabrielle and other severe weather events in early 2023 we’ve committed the entire New Zealand Disaster Fund to helping people and communities affected.

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Home Bundles recipients, Hend Selim and Laila Abd El Gawad

16 November 2023

Looking after mental health in recovering communities

Update 14: In this update we focus on our work supporting mental health in recovering communities and check in on three community grant recipients.

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Psychosocial advisor Sarah Gribbin chats with Te Karaka Community Co Lead for Cyclone Recovery Pimia Wehi

18 September 2023

Staying with communities through long-term recovery

Update 13: We’re still working with communities as they move through their longer-term recovery. Read about our support for individual grant programmes, grants for mental health initiatives and how we’re helping people move home with the Red Cross Home Bundles programme.

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Crystal and Heretaunga womens centre DSC08855 small

17 August 2023

Giving hope in cyclone-torn Hawke’s Bay communities

Six months on from Cyclone Gabrielle, regional project manager Carol Ball reflects on her time working alongside the ‘phenomenal’ Hawke’s Bay community.

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