2024 was a busy year for building meaningful places and spaces that positively impact whānau and their community. Thanks to our National Partner, Mitre 10, we were able to deliver seven build projects in 2024, including five school gardens, an outdoor play area and a basketball court.

School Gardens:

Starting off in February we transformed a large garden space at Roscommon School and in April, built an entirely new garden along with greenhouse at Mangere East Primary. We then headed to Western Heights school in May to build a brand new garden for their 800 tamariki, and finally to Te Paina School in Waikato to build a garden there. Feedback from the teachers and students share how fantastic it's been having gardens and how much their children have loved being able to grow, harvest and cook all kinds of veggies and fruit.

Mā te Huruhuru

Over the last year we've been helping out around Mā Te Huruhuru (NZ's first kaupapa Māori transitional housing facility for youth who have experienced homelessness) with food for rangatahi, event, programme and resource funding and now a basketball court and gardens.

Thanks to funding from Mitre 10, we built a brand new basketball court. The court is an incredible resource for the rangatahi, helping them connect and support each other on their healing journey at the Pā. It’ll boost their hauora, getting them physically and mentally fit too.

We were also able to deliver garden beds, soil, veggies, herbs and trees for rangatahi to build and plant themselves, then grow, harvest and eat!

Playground

In November we also travelled up north to Kaitaia for a very special project! Rongopai Community House had been dreaming of a play area for their tamariki for over 10 years, and thanks to Mitre 10, we were able to make it happen. Over three days, Mitre 10's Stan and our team built an outdoor play area with a pirate ship, dollhouse, swings and slide and tamariki now have a safe, fun space to learn, play, and grow, while parents and whānau have a place to connect.

Ngā mihi Mitre 10

2024 was a great year for our Build Projects and we couldn't have done it without Mitre 10, huge mihi to them for supporting and strengthening communities across Aotearoa. We can't wait to see where 2025 takes us for project #40!

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