Edgecumbe is in clean up mode as more residents return home. The first lot of volunteers gave a helping hand to those cleaning their homes. The initiative between Ngāti Awa, Regional Councils and local groups had 80 volunteers help out in Edgecumbe today.
They call themselves the Ngāti Awa Volunteer Army or NAVA a group of volunteers helping to clean up Edgecumbe.
Hakahaka Hona (Ngāti Awa) says, “We have close to 70, 80 people here helping to clean up Edgecumbe but there are more people who have registered on our internet page but around 80 people are here today.”
More residents returned to Edgecumbe today, skip bins were provided to help in the clean-up.
Pim de Monchy (Toi Moana, Volunteer Coordinator) says, “So the main task's today are dragging things like carpets white ware, couches, and rotten food things like that out of people houses and yards and putting them into Skip bins, seeping down driveways, hosing down driveways, picking up silt and that sort of thing.
James Taylor (Ngāti Awa, Volunteer) says, “We've got whānau, we've got residents here that have lost everything, we are trying our best to help them out and hopefully we get to renovate their houses, build new houses for the whānau that can move back into their houses in the next couple weeks.
The NAVA volunteer group will be working in Edgecumbe for the next five days with over 500 registered people.