Thank you.
Mōrena e hoa,
I know I’ve said it a lot, but thank you. Thank you for being part of our community. Thank you for making sure we’re not just people who live in the same area code. Whether you did that by joining a local project, spreading the word online, kanohi ki te kanohi (face to face), or joining the conversations in the Facebook groups or Instagram page, you helped. And each one of us helping, that weaving together of our collective aroha, is what makes us strong, resilient, and better able to face into what’s been one **** of a year. That’s what makes us a community.
Over the last few weeks we’ve been in the most time-squeezed part of the kaupapa: getting the koha which didn’t arrive sorted for each social service or school. Our rangatahi across the motu have been sprinting around the clock to get this done as best as we can.
We’ve also been trying to help as many of the whānau who have reached out directly for help, this is tricky because we can’t take the same approach we usually do of connecting those who could do with some extra aroha, with those who have capacity to give. These are all mums or dads reaching out from really challenging situations, many of their stories are heartbreaking and I’ve cried more than once hearing them. Often we don’t have social services or community partners neaby to be in the middle protecting the privacy, safety, and mana of everyone involved in that act of kindness and connection. We’re doing what we can for them, and we’ll work through how to do this better next year.
We’ve got a fair bit of admin and tidy up to work through over the weekend, but after that - we’ll be done for the year. As happens every year, the trickle of people emailing to say they’ve missed the drop off date and what should they do with their koha will continue, and we’ll try and find the best place to direct those to but other than that, I’m looking forward to turning off, and maybe getting some of the knee-high lawn sorted on Sunday afternoon :)
A favour, please
If you joined a project this year, I’m calling in my technical-birthday-week (that’s a thing, aye?) favour and asking you to please send your rangatahi coordinator a thank you or mihi to acknowledge the amazing work they’ve done especially in this high-stress part of the year. You’ll see their email icon on your project page. With them driving our collective aroha, we made Christmas special for 17,000 tamariki and neighbours of ours. That’s beautiful, but the work and learning our amazing rangatahi team of Arita, Jayden, Vyaan, Tiara, and Karnia, have put in alongside old-hands Lisa and I to make that happen, on a brand new platform, has definitely been challenging. I’ll talk more about them in the new year but for now, please do let them know you appreciate them.
I also want to thank you for your patience during the launch of Koha Tree. Launching a platform like this is no small feat, especially on a budget of donations and for such a large, passionate community. It’s easy to forget that the majority of the online services we use (and base many of our expectations around) have had millions of dollars put into making them work the way they work, and that is of course not the reality for us. Making something work ‘well enough’ the 1.4 million times it was used or viewed in its first month is again down to you, your aroha, and our rangatahi helping gifters navigate the things that we haven’t found money yet to improve.
What happens next year?
Early in the new year the rangatahi leaders and I will be catching up at Te Wānanga o Raukawa who have been our biggest supporter this year, to reflect and review (after the third important R, rest). To do that, we need your feedback :)
Give feedback so we can make the improvements that matter most.
If you missed the chance to let us know how you found taking part, please do so here :)
If you took part as an individual click here.
If you took part as a whānau click here.
If you signed up as an organisation and we haven’t already been in touch, click here.
If you didn’t take part this year and would like to let us know why we’d love to hear from you too! Click here.
Kia pai te mutunga o te wiki nui nei. Enjoy the end of this big week. I hope you’re alongside people you love and getting ready to enjoy a break. I am!
Ngā manaakitanga,
Pera