BAG loads of essential items have been donated by the Swan Hill community to create emergency relief kits for those affected by the catastrophic bushfires.
Swan Hill residents Rebecca Wolfe, Charlotte Wolfe and Robin Wilkie have been collecting donations for the Wellness Advocate Natural Disaster Support (WANDS) group, to make “simple yet effective” kits to assist those in need.
“In the space of 24 hours days we’ve had so many boxes and bag fulls donated,” Ms Wolfe told The Guardian.
“Swan Hill has been amazing, I’ve been crying because of the generosity of this community and it’s been a much bigger response than what we thought.”
The items in the kits include travel size toothpaste, a bar of soap, microfiber face washer/face cloth, sanitary pads or tampons, shampoo, conditioner, lip balm and individually wrapped tea bags.
“When you’re evacuating you think about your passport, your will, marriage certificate and kids toys…the last thing you think of is your toothbrush and soap,” WANDS founder Petah-Jane Auckland-Hall said.
“These are the things you need, and these kits have been amazing as they’ve been able to get people through for about a week.”
Ms Auckland-Hall told The Guardian she first thought of creating the emergency relief kits when the fire crisis started in Queensland about four months ago.
“A team of people that came together and the whole idea was that we would dedicate a day to kit making,” she said.
“The day turned into weekend and it just hasn’t stopped. We haven’t stopped in 16 weeks.”
Within the 16 weeks, 6000 kits have been packaged from across Australia, 75 per of which have been distributed.
“I’ve been requesting for help as far as we can go,” Ms Auckland-Hall said.
“We’ve had people help from Perth, Victoria, NSW, Queensland even as as far as Canada.
“Australia seems under-prepared when disaster happens and these kits are really simple and easy to make yet very effective when somebody has been asked to leave home or work for the emergency services.”
The local items were collated and packaged in Manangatang yesterday with donations stretching as far from Ouyen, Robinavle, Donald and Mildura.
“The kit making days are a nice way for people to come together in the community and something all ages and abilities can do,” Ms Aukland-Hall said.
“We will be going as long as we need to keep going.
“The idea is eventually we will scale back and run a national kit making endeavour for one weekend every quarter but at the moment we are just making kits non-stop day after day.
“It’s making a difference and that’s what we’re here to do.”
Ms Wilkie described the generosity from the local community as the “country way”.
“Hats off to country towns,” Ms Wilkie said.
“There have been a lot of country towns lost in these fires but this town (Swan Hill) can do amazing things in the face of adversity.”
