Hi Carol,

Here is our quick information which we emailed to all families on Wednesday following the quake. We also did the following things below, excuse this being informally written as I included this as part of a staff update today:

Instant response to quake:  

• 1. Within 30 minutes of the earthquake we sent a text message to Au pairs asking them to 'check in' (Christchurch only - this was later reviewed and all information below was sent to all Au Pairs)


• 2. Within 30 minutes we had put messages on facebook and blogs as well as our news site. We also stayed on facebook and communicated with those Christchurch Au Pairs who were online.


• 3. Within 1 hour of the earthquake we sent a text message to all Au pairs advising them on civil defence procedures.


• 4. Within 2 hours of the earthquake we sent a text message to all Au Pairs advising them of local medical facilities that were open.


• 5. Within 24 hours we texted all Host Families and asked them to confirm their family status. We also set-up a workflow to check off every single Au Pair and Host Family. We have also begun an initial assessment, based on family and Au Pair comments, whether the home is safe or not.


• 6. Within 24 hours we sent an email to all families and Au Pairs with information regarding trauma kits. We also uploaded this to the resource portal.


• 7. We sent out several newsletter to advise families and Au Pairs on next steps.

You may wonder why we sent all Au Pairs information relating to civil defence procedures - we made this decision because we are aware that a lot of our Au Pairs are travelling e.g. we wanted to be sure that the information included all Au Pairs whether they were in Christchurch or not as they could well be on holiday in Christchurch with their Host parents and children.

Long-term response to quake: 

• 1. We will send out trauma kit to all families and Au Pairs in Christchurch. We will also ask families in other regions if they would like these kits. The kits will include:


• a. Information on how to deal with children's emotions following an earth quake.


• b. Feelings flash cards


• c. A soft toy for all children (both 123 and Mate) - see attached photo of my desk this morning!


• d. We will also include new portfolio pages for children to deal with their emotions and encourage au Pairs to work with the children on this.


• 2. We will contact all families via phone next week to assess their damage. We have not done this yet as we want to give families a chance to recover.


• 3. We will offer counselling to those who require it.


• 4. We have plenty of offers from Host Families in other areas offering accommodation as well.

Cecilia Robinson - Director Au Pair Link