To Whom It May Concern

I am Principal of Wainoni School.

This is fast becoming the most difficult time for us in the East as you might imagine, and my job as Principal has vastly changed because of that.

I just wanted to write and say a huge thank you.

There have been many approaches from agencies for supports that we have been invited to access since the September and subsequent quakes. Most of these however, have over time and for various reasons turned us down, or we have simply heard nothing back. Overall, it has been individuals across the country (and in other parts of the world!), along with other schools that have supported the whole school as a group.

'Adopt a Christchurch Family' has been the most beneficial and useful group that we have worked with over these most difficult times. I, as Principal, and also therefore as a community representative, have through 'Adopt a Christchurch Family' been able to access immediate support to help individual families in sometimes desperate need as they have approached me, or I have been approached by others on their behalf.

Please pass on my huge thanks to all concerned. Your responsiveness and support is absolutely perfect and I am very grateful to all concerned.

It has made all the difference in these extremely trying times.

Arohanui

Kym Wells
Principal

Please pass on our sincere thanks to the wonderful people who have supported our lovely families at St James. To see the tears of joy and relief instead of saddness has really heartened me and helped keep the staff cheerful here, even though many are affected in different ways too. I am seeing how the reserves that people had have been whittled away after each big quake and those who can usually make ends meet (even if it is just!) are now finding it is not possible. The generosity and thoughtfulness of the adopt a family team has really made a difference and it really is appreciated. The families do not like to ask but when the children bring some food or clothing home, they are humble enough to accept it. On the surface, school looks great. But underneath it takes a great deal of kindness to give these children equity.Your great kindness will enable these children to have "EQUAL OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN" because you can’t learn if you are cold or uncomfortable.

Kind regards,

Barlow
Principal
St James School -Te Kura O Hato Hemi
"Not just a school, but a family"

As a teacher in the midst of the eastern zone it is so lovely to have received the gift of money towards extra firewood for the winter. I am lucky enough not to have liquefaction in my home but it's right up to the floor boards underneath. I will really appreciate being able to purchase the extra firewood to help dry my home out. Also we are thrilled to be able to put in applications for parents at our school so that they too can receive a help in these difficult times.You are a blessing

I awoke this morning to a miracle!!! Upon checking our bank account I discovered a sum of $1500 that had been deposited by your organisation. I am writing to say thankyou, You have made it possible for us to enrol our daughter at a good school in Invercargill (where we are relocating to early July) and to buy her uniform, I have also paid some outstanding utility accounts, bought a second hand washing machine and also purchased petrol vouchers for our journey as well as invested in warm coats for the winter, you have no idea how much this has meant to our family, thankyou from the bottom of our hearts!!! We will do our darndest to "pay it forward" when we are in a better position, to help someone else who needs it.

Thank-you so much for your generosity and support.

I wanted to make sure you were aware of the significant difference you have made in our lives. We have 4 children, x,x,x,and x. As with so many others in christchurch our living conditions have been severly comprimised.

It is one thing to rough it personally, but quite another to have substandard living for your kids. Our x year old has very bad asthma, that has him in Hospital several times a year. Since the earthquakes he has been very ill, due to the lack of proper insulation, and increasing dampness. We have fungi and liquifaction silt coming up in three of our bedrooms, with cracks to the outside of the house in 2 bedrooms. With your gernerosity we have been able to buy a very good dehumidifier and extra beds and bedding so we can sleep all the kids in one bedroom, and shut down the other bedrooms.

These things were very much out of realm of possibility previous to your help.

There are days where it almost seems daunting to go on, however with the generosity, love and kindness of people such as yourselves, the possibility of giving up is no longer an option.

Thank you so very very much.

xx a very grateful eastside family.

Hello,

Thank you so much for your kindness.

It has meant a lot to our two boys, one in his first year of high school and one in year 6 at schools that were located in the middle of the Christchurch CBD about 5 minutes walk from the Christchurch Cathedral.I (their mum) was at work next door to the CTV building when the earth quake happened. Their Dad was working well out of central Christchurch and was safe and well. The boys have seen and heard things that no one should have to and have been remarkably resilient. They are amazed at the kindness of people such as your selves and want me to make sure I tell you that they are going to replace their new school supplies and then work really hard.

Thank you ,your support means a lot to all of Christchurch.

I just wanted to send a small note to say thank-you so very very very much to adopt a family for the special help my daughter and I received, The help brought tears of joy to my eyes and ensured we had enough to help us through an exceedingly rough time. I know there are many in need and i feel honored to have been selected and i only hope that one day i am in a position to help others in need and return the favor.

So thank-you ! Your kind hearted efforts have given us some light in very dark times.

My family and I would like to give enormous love and thanks to all those who contributed to the donation we received of $1500, to assist us with Bonds and Rent In Advance, in order to find a new home. I suffer from serious medical conditions, and although our home had been deemed “habitable”, it had sustained a serious amount of damage and would have lead to a very uncomfortable and unwell winter for me. The whole family is excited that we can now look for a new home and have the money to actually apply and begin wishing for a warmer, safer environment to live. Thank you, we are not a wealthy family obviously, but the wealth of love, charity and assistance the country has shown us all in Canterbury is more valuable than anything … let us keep that sense of togetherness … I will pay it on, I will make you glad that you supported us. Again, all our love and thoughts to you all.

We just wanted to say thank you VERY much to you and of course the business/businesses who have donated to the Adopt a Christchurch Family Trust. We recently received $600 to help with our recovery from these awful earthquakes. We are situated in the hard-hit eastern suburbs and with three young children to keep warm and safe, this extra money will go a long way to help ease the pressure and pay for our extra heating expenses this winter. We (and many other CHCH residents) have been overwhelmed and humbled by the support of kind strangers during this time and hope that these generous people realise just how much of a difference they have made to our lives. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

To all those kind people who have helped us via this wonderful organisation,

We would like to give you our heart-felt thanks. The last nine months have been a real struggle for us; particularly since February the 22nd. We live in the Eastern suburbs and when the second earthquake hit I was eight months pregnant with my third child and had been suffering from anaemia and acute vomiting throughout the pregnancy; so was feeling depressed and exhausted. Our house and contents were very badly damaged and my X and X year old children traumatised. My pregnancy was high risk and I needed to be close to a hospital so the children and I were evacuated to X where we stayed until I had the baby in March.

My husband used up all of our savings, plus had to borrow money, flying to and from Christchurch to visit us at the weekends; he could not use the cheap stand by fares as he had to make sure that he got back for work and could not take the risk of getting stranded in X and ticket prices were astronomical. Sadly he was unable to get to X in time for the birth and I suffered a number of complications, including severe nerve damage. I returned to Christchurch following the birth, with post-natal depression and a beautiful X who unfortunately was suffering from chronic reflux. Since then, we have tried to get our lives back together but with no savings and living on one wage it has been a struggle, although we do live in a very caring community.

The $600 you so kindly donated will enable us to buy firewood to see us through the winter and keep us warm. But above all your kindness has lifted our spirits; never doubt how much difference you have made to people in our situation. We received the money just after the June 13th massive after-shocks. Once again our suburb took a beating and our house was even more severely damaged, we had got used to not having sewage, having not had it since February, but it was a nightmare not having power or water with three under X. We are still waiting to find out if our house is safe to live in. At a time when it would have been easy just to give into despair, you reminded us that we are not alone and that there are people out there who care.

Thank you so much.

God bless your kind heart, thank you, thank all great, wonderful people of New Zealand who made this miracle possible.

You are giving us much more than just a money, much more than a chance to manage our life, you are giving us great feeling of belonging here, in New Zealand, thank you very much! Our deepest cordial gratitude.

Thank you so much for helping me and my girls. I don’t know how to thank you, as I was reading your email all I could do was cry.

You don’t know how much this help means to me and what it means to us. I will be in contact. At the moment I am just overwhelmed.

We can’t say thank you enough for the help you have given us. The last year for our family has been extremely hard, after the last earthquake we lost our insurance.

So the February 22nd quake was almost the last straw, leaving the plumbing broken and us with no way to fix it. The email telling us of your help was an ray of hope and has restored our faith in people. We can’t say thank you enough, I've been struggling all day with how.

We've already booked the plumber and are looking forward to starting to get our lives back to normal again.

I would like to personally thank you for taking the time to contact Adopt a Christchurch Family.com and for making a very generous donation.

Christchurch residents have been through so much lately, but having the support and generosity of people such as you has not only helped restore homes, families and lives but also our faith in humanity.

I am a single working mum with a 3 1/2 year old daughter called Lilly-Rose and we have been blessed with financial assistance from you to help us with essential car repairs (my car suffered a lot of water and silt damage the day of the earthquake when I left work and tried to drive to my daughter’s daycare. I ended up parking on the side of the road and walking as my car simply died).

Your money is also helping us replace household items that we lost such as basic glasses, plates etc and food, as we were without power or water for just over three weeks. One very special item that I thank you for helping me replace is my daughters Dora bike which she only got last Xmas and has recently leant to ride by herself. This was buried in liquid faction and absolutely mangled. xxxxx was very upset at the loss of her bike and to be able to replace this will be absolutely wonderful – I can’t wait to see the big smile on her face!

Once again, I can’t thank you enough, you have no idea what your help means to me and my daughter as we did not have insurance as this was one expense that I couldn’t afford, but now I know that it is one thing we can’t afford not to have.

To all the wonderful people who are supporting Adopt a Christchurch Family- a great big and sincere thank -you.

We live in Avonside which is one of the suburbs which has suffered through both major shakes and has resulted in the loss of many personal possessions and daily essentials which are really difficult to replace for us.

My husband’s job was in Cashel Street (the cordoned off area) which was a 5 minute drive up the road, now they have moved to the opposite side of the city and it takes an hour and a half in traffic!! At least his business is able to move on and trade at this point, he had previously lost his last job due to the September quake and had only managed to get a new job one week before the February quake!! That alone made it a tough few months!!

Even things like a walk to the supermarket for me (we have one car which hubby takes to work) is no longer possible as the two closest to us are closed due to damage and no buses run in our area due to road and bridge damage. We have a three year old at kindy, who isn’t back yet as asthma and eczema have flared and I am uncomfortable with the ten minute walk in case of another earthquake like on the day of the February one!!! Our other child is five and at school, which thankfully is only over the back fence!!

I am really proud to see how New Zealand is standing up and helping out all the people of Canterbury through this. It is unfortunately an event which is effecting so many of us in negative ways but at the same time, has brought us together-showing the loving and caring side of kiwis, which we have all seemed to have lost over the years.

It is a real comfort to know that we will all be there for each other in times of need and for this, our whole family is grateful. Thank-you fellow kiwis for helping us stay strong!!

My family and I would love to thank you so much for you're donation from you're caring organization.

It brought us to tears knowing that there are people & families that do care about other families in need.

I was beginning to give up hope. At this stage i am still looking for a place to live and the money you have given us will help us in many way's, never in our wildest dreams would we have thought that you would give us that amount. Once again thank you so much to you're organization & to the families that supported the trust :)

After I got off the phone with someone from “Adopt a Family” who said that they had someone that wants to help us with a financial donation I cried and cried. I was so overcome with an amazing positive feeling that I just can’t seem to describe in words. To know that a stranger was out there and wanted to help us....another total stranger....is something that words can’t describe.

Thank you just doesn’t seem enough!

My husband and I have struggled with the September earth quake but felt we were just starting to get there and with February hitting we have felt more lost with direction on where to go and what to do first even more.

With the money that we were very blessed with we have yet to still make a final decision on how to use it well, but it comes down to just a few things : relocating our business’, temporarily fixing our home for us to work from or move into a rental house. lt seems so overwhelming really.

With your kind donation I feel that we can breathe just a little easier when making the next big decision’s, so THANKYOU (who ever you are)!!!!