Volunteers deliver warm kiwi welcome for former refugees
2 October 2026
What makes a warm Kiwi welcome? It's having someone alongside you when everything is brand new.
Every year around 1,000 former refugees arrive in New Zealand with courage, skill and big dreams – families like Elie Zagabe, his wife Irene and their four children. New Zealand Red Cross volunteers are on hand when they arrive to connect families to a medical centre, the nearby school, provide some essential household goods, and even tips on navigating local neighbourhoods and public transport – everything you need to help you settle into a new home.
And it's support that is valued and appreciated. “Being in a community where people respect human dignity, where our family lives safely, means a lot to me,” Elie says.
Elie was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He loves his country. But violence and insecurity forced his family to flee. They spent the next 12 years in a refugee camp, far from everything they had ever known. Twelve years in a camp where the food ration was barely enough: a few kilograms of maize and a little money to stretch across a month. Then Elie’s family was taken off the food list altogether.
“I suffered a lot,” Elie says. “I have never experienced any suffering like that in my life.”
Long hungry days and nights
The family began going whole nights without eating. His wife, caring for their two-month-old baby, couldn’t get through the day. When the rains came, the mud-brick house they lived in leaked so badly they moved from room to room, chasing a dry corner.
Every night, Elie’s eldest boy, Primo, would ask his father the same question. When can we leave?
Irene Zagabe with Nadine
Even in the camp, where refugees were not allowed to earn a proper wage, Elie found ways to help other people. He started a small rabbit-farming project and passed the young rabbits on to women who had nothing. He taught families to grow vegetables in sacks when there was no land. He founded a community health organisation that still runs today. And he taught himself English, then earned a diploma and then a Bachelor of Arts in Health Care Management, studying online late into the night. In a refugee camp.
When one organisation saw how hard he worked, they gave him a motorbike so he could earn a little for his family. Soon after, someone broke through the fence in the night and stole it. Elie kept going anyway determined to work hard and be ready to take whatever opportunities came his way.
The vital volunteer connection
Former refugees like Elie, these are the people who arrive on our shores. Ordinary people who have lived through extraordinary things. People who bring courage, skill and determination with them.
Each year Red Cross volunteer teams help around 900 people begin their new lives in Aotearoa.
It starts the moment a family lands. A New Zealand Red Cross team member is at the airport, holding a sign with their names. Someone helps them find their way around a new neighbourhood, the library, the health centre and the bus routes.
Someone takes them to their first English class, their first doctor’s appointment, and their child’s first day at a new school. Someone helps set up a home, so a family arriving with a single suitcase has a bed to sleep in and a kettle to boil.
Small things, but for a family starting from nothing, it means everything.
First day welcome
When Elie’s family finally reached Masterton, the Red Cross team was waiting. They had asked in advance what the family would like to eat and arranged for another Congolese family to cook it. A neighbour, Steve, turned up with bikes for the children. Their doctor visited twice and brought warm clothes gathered by people in nearby Carterton.
“Being in a community where people respect human dignity, where our family lives safely, means a lot to me,” Elie says.
Kiwi communities enriched through refugee strengths
People from refugee backgrounds bring diversity and cultural and social richness to communities and workplaces around Aotearoa New Zealand.
And they ask for little in return. Looking ahead, Elie wants stability, opportunities for further study, and a chance to contribute to his new community. For his children, Primo (8), Bertin (5), Benita (2) and Nadine (6 months) who have only ever known life in a refugee camp, he hopes for peace, and good health.
His plea for New Zealanders is simple.
“For the people who will hear my stories, I hope they will not continue to see refugees’ struggles, but they will start seeing refugees through their strengths, through their humanity, through the values that they have and what they are able to do for the community,” he says.
Elie is, above all, looking forward. “I'm very happy to be here in New Zealand, and I'm now ready to begin another chapter of my life.”
For more information
When you volunteer for Red Cross, you’re becoming a member of an internationally recognised movement for good. Find out about volunteering for New Zealand Red Cross, what you can do and why it’s good for you too.
Find out more about volunteering
Help families like Elie and Irene's feel welcome in New Zealand by donating today.