Fundraising for Christchurch Montessori Centres and Schools

The February 22 earthquake  had a enormous effect on several Montessori centres and schools in Christchurch.

Montessori Aotearoa New Zealand has launched an appeal to raise funds to support the long-term viability of member centres and schools who face an uncertain future due to the lack of community infrastructure, work opportunities for families and the exodus of families seeking safety in other parts of New Zealand. 

Care and Community

Much as been written and said about the feeling of community that has come from the Christchurch earthquake in all parts of New Zealand.

Tanya from Otaki Montessori Preschool reports, 'We are in direct contact with Casa dei Bambini Montessori in Christchurch as after the first quake in September, 2010 we sent funds directly to them and have since developed a wonderful relationship between our centres.'
 
Nicola Chisnall writes in our magazine Montessori Voices April 11;

'... it was in the practical tasks (what we call ‘practical life’) Dr Montessori saw the greater moral good – in such work, she pointed out, “the children develop a true ’social feeling’, for they are working in the environment of the community in which they live, without concerning themselves as to whether it is for their own, or for the common good” (The Discovery of the Child, p 95).

You can will see from the fundraising tasks that young children in small Montessori schools have contributed to that they have had a significant opportunity to show their 'social feeling'. 

 Montessori Fundraising Events Around New Zealand 

Otaki Montessori Preschool, Otaki
Families raised $145.91 in a coin trail and the preschool has matched that with a donation of $145.00

Koru Montessori, Auckland
Friends, families and children raised $120 by a gold coin donation and the children have made cards to go directly to the children of the schools affected.

Maru Montessori, Auckland
The community had a sausage sizzle. Apples and feijoas from the school’s trees, eggs from the chickens and ‘worm tea’ were also sold. The community raised $261.00 for Christchurch Montessori schools.

Marshwood Montessori, Auckland
The children made a book of messages and drawings of love and support for the schools in Christchurch.

Learning Edge Montessori,  Auckland
At the school’s annual sports day instead of everyone bringing morning tea, families contributed a plate of food where each item could be sold individually for $1 and $500 was raised.

Waikato Montessori Education Centre, Hamilton
The centre held a two minute silence and owner Diane Bhana commented that 'it was very moving to see such young children participate'. The centre have made a donation to the MANZ fund for Christchurch.

Shaken Oak Montessori, Feilding
The children and families of Shaken Oak Montessori are having a sponsored Wheel-a-thon to raise money on Tuesday March 8. The school raised $1000 for Christchurch.

Mana Montessori, Whitby, Wellington
The centre supported 'red and black' day and held a 'wheel-a-thon' on Saturday March 5.

Wa Ora Montessori School, Lower Hutt
The school is held a 'red and black' day on Friday March 4 and families are being urged to make a donation.
The Wa Ora Montessori high school class are donating the proceeds from their next two Kawakawa Cafe mornings to the appeal.
The school also held a raffle to raise funds.

New Plymouth Montessori School
The school had fundraising day on Friday March 4 – red and black – and crazy hair !!

South Wellington Montessori
The children are making a donation and collecting books to send to Christchurch as part of the Kids for Christchurch fundraising.

Young Montessori, Panmure, Auckland
The school community have been collecting non-perishable food items which they plan to send to a Montessori school community in Christchurch.

Tawa Montessori Preschool, Wellington and Little Earth Montessori, Kapiti
Anja Geelen reports that  her teacher Dianne's husband and her own husband drove to Christchurch on February 29 with a van full of tools and a generator and parcels/donations collected from the families of Little Earth Montessori and Tawa Montessori Preschool. Chris and Theo are planning to stay for two weeks in Christchurch to volunteer their handyman/building skills and help the people in the streets of Christchurch.
 

News to Date 

Thank you from Casa dei Bambini Montessori April 10, 2011

To all our friends in the Montessori Community, both in New Zealand and indeed the world,

Please accept our deepest and grateful thanks for all the letters, emails, cards and words of support and care we have received following this second devastating earthquake in Christchurch. To know that you are supported and nurtured in such rough times is to be uplifted and we can't convey our truly grateful we are to the many kindnesses and gifts of encouragement and care we have received.  A burden shared,  truly is a burden halved.

Life here is returning to a new normal.  I think it will be sometime before we all recover fully.  After the September earthquake the children returned after a week away, (and we thought that was huge), and talked and acted out in their play their experiences in the following weeks.  That hasn't  happened this time and they only started spontaneously talking about the earthquake for the first time this week, six weeks after the event.  I think this one is a much deeper and more viscerally felt experience and one which will take time to leave our minds and bodies.  The continuing aftershocks don't particularly help the memories leave unfortunately, and many parents are dealing with children in their beds or waking up crying many nights each week.

After the first earthquake in September we managed to restart following emergency repairs, but had to undertake a major repair and rebuild starting with re-levelling in November.  From then on it was full steam ahead and we returned to a new classroom opening just two weeks prior to the February earthquake.   In fact, the last pour of concrete occurred on the morning of this earthquake and the builder popped in, in his socks to say I think that we re finished.    It was a shocking event to see our new concrete crack and move and shift as liquifaction came up and around and forced itself throughout our playground and to ring the builder and say we couldn’t close our doors! Luckily the building coped well and we felt safe inside with the children.  Whilst there are repairs that we need to do, they are not extensive because of our quality rebuild  over summer and we have managed to restart again!

Every family in our school has and is experiencing enormous changes and stresses.  We have dads working from garages, working from caravans, tents and in one case the boot of his car.  Most families are now living with chemical toilets and disposal tanks a block or two away, limited supermarkets, no restaurants or cafes out our side as yet, roads that are a challenge even to the four wheel drive! and so much more.  We have families who have lost their employment, their homes and those who find themselves now working part-time until things pick up.  Numerous families are not returning to Christchurch and our roll is impacted as are all the schools and preschools in the east.  And yet we know we are lucky, because our fellow beings in Japan's north have it worse than us and we know their suffering.

It looks to be a long winter with bitterly cold winds blasting our days already! and rain destroying the temporary repairs of roads,  however there is incredible resilience in this community and a spirit of support and care and people beginning to find the energy to laugh.   One of our parents at school is the father of Rocky, which destroyed his home and he used his blog as a way of dealing with that loss through comedy.

As to infrastructure services, never ever take water, power and especially sewerage (waste water) services for granted.  They are magic and when we all use our portaloos, chemical toilets or hold off flushing, or tip washing water on the garden, you become extremely aware of how cities work and how much we rely on them, enjoy those services and value them!

We are exceedingly grateful for all the kindness and generosity in all manifestations that we have received as a community from within New Zealand and indeed from the world community.  To those who sent food, it was distributed to the families most in need, particularly those who lost their jobs.  To those who've sent money through to Montessori Aotearoa New Zealand, we thank you wholeheartedly.  We intend to design planter boxes that are liquifaction resistant with any funds that come our way.  To those schools and families from around the world, we are humbled by your gracious thoughts, care and financial support.

It is an incredibly humbling experience to be the recipient of great kindness and and one which helps us get through the many frustrations of the day as the city works to get back to function and begins to repair .   Please accept our sincere gratitude for sharing your support through this traumatic time.   Thank you from all of us at Casa deiBambini Foundation School.

My warmest regards, Kathleen Gisho

Sunday April 10

All the affected Montessori schools in Christchurch have re-opened. MANZ  is hoping to receive all the funds raised by Montessori communities around New Zealand and to distribute this assistance to our members in Christchurch that are needing our help.

We are glad that some teachers from Christchurch will still be travelling to our national conference on April 16.
Some relaxing in the thermal pools at Rotorua will be beneficial!

Wednesday March 16

Courtyard Montessori Preschool reopened last week and said '' It was so good to re-open on Tuesday and see so many of our children back. Our classes are quieter than normal, but hopefully families will start returning home this weekend and we will be back to normal next week.''

Casa Dei Bambini Foundation School opened this week with about half its children. Kathleen Gisho emailed to say, "We have managed to make emergency repairs and completed documentation, so it's a big step.  Christchurch is gutted in a way that is indescribable.  Every building has damage, from the city out to the east.  Nothing has escaped unscathed for at least half the population and the ongoing upheaval and anxiety with job losses, the impossibility of going anywhere and getting children back into any sort of education is extremely challenging.

We are really grateful to all the words of kindness and support we have received from the Montessori community.  Several are fundraising for us to help us re-establish a children's garden.  We intend to design planter boxes that are up off the ground and therefore liquefaction protected!  It's been great to hear from schools all over New Zealand offering words of encouragement and support".

Nova Montessori School is planning to reopen in the next few weeks.

Friday March 4

Courtyard Montessori Preschool, Somnerfield Street, Christchurch
Shelagh Powell from Courtyard Montessori emailed to say 'I am very pleased and relieved to let you know that we have come through this earthquake very well. The Courtyard has certainly been rumbled on its foundations but shown itself to be a rare beauty on solid foundations. While we have been closed as a directive from  Public Health and Civil Defence we are now all geared up ready to recommence next Monday.

I have been in contact with  Casa dei Bambini and I know that once again the school have suffered another major setback after work carried after the September earthquake.It is my understanding  Nova Montessori School has also been hit pretty hard .I am sure they will all appreciate any financial assistance from our Montessori community. Again many thanks for organising this appeal, however Courtyard Montessori is fine and would love to see any funds distributed amongst those schools in need.'

Nova Montessori School
This message was sent to Nova Montessori from a parent;
'I want to express my wholehearted gratitude to the staff and community of Nova Montessori for keeping my beautiful child safe through the immense disaster on 22 February.  I thank those who designed and commissioned the buildings that didn’t collapse.  I thank the Montessori philosophy for instilling self-confidence and the ability to act.  I thank how the teachers responded to the September quake and its aftershocks- with drills to take cover as a normal and natural response.  I thank our teacher Shubha’s soft voice and the fact that when she raised her voice it brought the children to attention.  Corina [4.5 yr old] told me afterward that she thought maybe Shubha thought Corina could die and that was why she yelled to take cover when she had originally frozen with fear.  She told me that Shubha cares and would not have raised her voice if it wasn’t serious.

I am thankful that I knew the school’s preparation for a disaster and the quality of the teachers and staff.  It reduced my anxiety while I waited for the two hours between the quake and when John arrived and confirmed she was OK.  I am without words to express my gratitude to everyone who stayed with the children and made their comfort a priority before attending to their own personal needs.  Nova Montessori School is a very special place and I am grateful.'

March 2, 2011

News to date is that the two most affected schools are Nova Montessori School in New Brighton and Casa dei Bambini Montessori in River Road.
While buildings are sound and classroom resources are largely undamaged; power and sewerage are problematic and both schools have damage outdoors to land and pavings. Staff and families are personally affected in different ways; both schools remain unsure how soon they can re-open and what families will be able to rejoin their school community.

Kathleen Gisho, Casa delBamini Montessori shares how life has been since the quake:
Yesterday, Thursday March 1, was our first teacher meeting since the quake  There are some fundamentally huge problems even when power and water are restored, namely, of 65 families, 60 live east of the school and that means they can't possibly get there and many of the older children in the families have lost their schools, so how we all manage our way around this will be interesting.

Many of our families are out of the city for now and those that stay do so because they have no choice, no alternative for now.   We've heard that several are gone for the forseeable future or indefinitely, or enrolled older children in schools in other cities for the term and will reevaluate after that, so we just proceed gently and see where this takes us.  The scale is simply gigantic.

I spoke with our insurance company and assessors and because this is an international claim, the process is to be managed very differently.  They are considering the payout of whole suburbs and then limiting future liability by not insuring thereafter.  Until those decisions are made the impact and questions hover in the air and the uncertainty floats as to the viabilty of so much.

Ah what a day...

Decided to the get the liquifaction out of school and had cancelled the student army because we thought we didn't have enough work for the gang of fifty.  Well by lunchtime our gang had 21 people in it and we needed them all!  We barrowed and barrowedand barrowed, shovelled and swept and it still kept coming.  Had to empty the sandpit as an added bonus as the liquifaction had bubbled up all through it...  But it is done and absolutely brilliant that it is so.  We had students, friends, family and friends of friends turn up and I can't possibly say just how grateful we are. 

Power came on at school while we were there and Liz almost leapt out the door shouting the power is on! with great glee.  So it was hot cups of tea for all of us all day. A very pleasant unexpected treat.  The few neighbours left in the street all came down to share in the excitement.  You'd be surprised just how much joy comes from something we all take for granted.

So it is with a light heart and an empty wheelbarrow that I bid you all goodnight.  Again thank you so much for your kind and loving emails, words of encouragement and some comedy observations.   It is such a deep need to know you are supported through such an event and that you are not alone and isolated as you look to the work that must be done. 

To all those kind offers of assistance, we'll let you know if we have any needs, but right now we simply are finding our way through the logistics and all the issues and there is little anyone can do for now.
 

Donations

MANZ is not yet sure how the funds raised will be used by affected schools, but we do know support will be necessary and welcomed in the weeks and months to come.

Your donations can be sent by cheque to MANZ