Taskforce Kiwi mobilises disaster relief support for operations in Canada and USA

For the second time in 2024, Taskforce Kiwi is undertaking simultaneous international disaster relief deployments, this time responding to requests for wildfire relief support in Alberta, Canada, and Hawaii, USA.

Recent wildfires in Alberta, Canada have devastated large areas of forest and caused significant property damage to the town of Jasper. At least 380 structures have been destroyed, including at least 800 housing units, displacing thousands.

An initial team of seven will deploy to Canada today to support international partner Team Rubicon Canada with relief efforts which will include debris clearance of destroyed structures and sifting through the remains of destroyed homes for items that can be salvaged.

Meanwhile an initial rotation of volunteers are into their second week of work in in Lahaina, Maui alongside humanitarian partner Red Lightning. The team are continuing their work decontaminating and preparing smoke impacted homes for local families to return, over a year after catastrophic wildfires ravaged the community. A second rotation of volunteers will travel from Aotearoa New Zealand later this week to replace them and continue that work.

Taskforce Kiwi National Director, Richard Adams, highlights the importance of sending disaster relief volunteers overseas:

“There are three main reasons for Taskforce Kiwi to carry out these international deployments. Firstly, we are standing side by side with our partners overseas, helping communities wherever we can after they have been through unimaginable trauma. Secondly, we are building on those relationships, so that we can call on their support when we need it here at home, as we did during Cyclone Gabrielle when we were able to bring in 65 skilled volunteers from international partners at no cost to New Zealand. Finally, the risk of bushfires in New Zealand is increasing, as we saw with our deployments in Canterbury earlier this year, and these deployments are an opportunity for our team to gain invaluable experience that will inevitably be required here at home.”

Both operations are expected to run over a significant period, with multiple rotations of Taskforce Kiwi volunteers to make the trip to the Northern Hemisphere in support of their partner organisations and communities of Lahaina and Jasper.

The current deployments bring Taskforce Kiwi's total operations to 13 over the past two years, with over 12,000 hours of skilled support provided to communities over that time. Taskforce Kiwi also recently celebrated the recruitment of the 600th volunteer since the founding of the organisation in July 2022.