Kane Rangitonga
Te Awamutu’s social services agency, Kainga Aroha Community House, faced an unprecedented level of challenges last year.
The need for assistance ballooned to such a point that Kainga Aroha remained operational throughout Christmas and New Year for the first time and staff were on call to help individuals and families straining to cope.
The agency’s manager Kane Rangitonga put it down to the increased economic and post-Covid related pressures being felt all over the country. Making things worse has been the drying up of government funding allocated to see agencies such as Kainga Aroha ride out the pressures of Covid-19 and extreme weather events such as Cyclone Gabrielle, which meant many rural communities were left in limbo.
The economic pressures that caused, plus associated issues such as alcohol and drug abuse as well as family violence, led to Kane deciding the social agency should remain operational.
“We would normally close between Christmas and New Year, but I made the call for us to remain available for those who were in real need,” he said. “This Christmas was probably one of the most stressful I’ve seen for a lot of families in need … and there are more of them than there were before Covid.
“There are families out there who lost their jobs through Covid and haven’t been able to find work since then. Some lost their homes too. From my perspective, it has been one of the hardest times we have seen around here.”
During the holiday season, the agency delivered around 200 food hampers in and around Te Awamutu, but it also did something of a ‘rescue run’ into Kāwhia after reports came through of families struggling over there.
“Kāwhia doesn’t normally fall under us – it officially comes under Ōtorohanga. But we were receiving reports of people whose needs weren’t being met, so we delivered out there as well. One was a grandmother who had up to 10 family members descend on her for the holidays. She just couldn’t cope, so we took the van over with boxes of food for her and others like her.”
Kane, who was awarded a Queen’s Service Medal (QSM) last year for services to social work, said extending into Kāwhia was unusual for Kainga Aroha.
“We have someone over there that we liaise with, so when we heard of the needs of people living there, we felt it was the right thing to do. I would like to see Kāwhia officially come under us, it makes more sense.”
Discussions around that are on his ‘to do’ list for 2024, as are plans to introduce a men’s programme focused on reducing family harm in the community. Kane said he is going to have to be particularly creative in organising that as the post-Covid climate means not all his funding has come through. He also wants to work more closely with community groups and business organisations to maximise the effectiveness of the agency.
He is confident Kainga Aroha can rise to the challenge.
“We are going to have to think on the fly… be more resourceful so we can continue to deliver the quality of services we do.”
Kainga Aroha Community House manager Kane Rangitonga is meeting the changing needs head on.
