Dear Carol

On behalf of the Board and staff of Family Day Care Australia, we have been deeply saddened by the events transpiring in Christchurch recently.  Could you please pass on our thoughts and prayers to your colleagues in the Canterbury region.

Kind regards - Lynne Moran

Kia Ora Lynne,

Thank you to your board and staff for their thoughts and prayers to our colleagues in Canterbury.

Like the rest of New Zealand,  across the country, we all share the same feelings of disbelief and shock as we heard and saw images of the devastation to the lives of people that we know. One of our board members actually works in the Christchurch CBD and was out of touch for over 36 hours which understandably had us very concerned until we were finally able to establish contact.The good news that we can share with you is that all of our members are safe, no children, as far as we are able to ascertain at this point, were injured and some of the homes are able to still function. Those who are still functioning are providing essential childcare services to emergency personnel working in the region. These are the great stories about Homebased as you are very well aware of having had your own share of natural disasters from fire to flood to cyclones in the past few months.

We have established a dedicated earthquake page on our website and are setting up a blog board later today for people to write messages on this will be available on www.nzhomebasedece.org.nz. One of our member services I have heard this morning is  producing trauma kits for children and families which will be sent to their networks in Christchurch once a delivery system is again established and I am sure many other great ideas will come to light over the next few weeks. We are also aware that many families have evacuated from Christchurch and are currently staying in other parts of the country. These families will also need additional support and care.

It is a very difficult and traumatic time here in New Zealand but, being Kiwi's, we will overcome this tragedy, pick ourselves up and rebuild with a stronger community spirit than ever before. The Homebased ECE sector is in good spirits, everyone is helping each other and at the end of the day that is what is important. It is times such as these that make us all very aware that it is the people in our lives and our relationships with each other that is really important.

Our Association is coordinating and sharing information from the members and the Ministry of Education as it comes to hand in what is essentially a very fluid situation as events unfold. Our Ministry of Education have been extremely responsive and are working around the clock to assist the education sector to return to some semblance of normality as quickly as possible as and when the civil defence closures are lifted.

Your support is greatly appreciated by us all. I will be in touch again in the very near future.

Nga mihi nui

Carol Stovold