The chairperson of Rose Charities NZ, Trish Gribben, recently presented a cheque for $1000 to Kafeba Mundele, the chairman of theAuckland Refugee Community Coalition Trust. The money is a seeding grant for the establishment of an independent Trust to help with re- unification of refugees and their families. Under New Zealand law, when visas are granted for a refugee's family members to join him or her in New Zealand the visas have a time limit. It is often extremely difficult and heartbreaking for a refugee to try to raise the money for airfares to bring their family person to join them. A trust has been operating for seven years in Wellington and has raised $500,000 to help refugee families re-unite. Sometimes the financial help is in the form of a loan. The Auckland Refugee Family Trust, which is to be launched in June, will raise and loan or grant money to support the refugee reunification. "Nothing is more important for refugee mental health and to help them become established as New Zealand citizens than to have their close family with them," said Kafeba Mundele. "You say $1000 is a small step towards our goal, but for us it is huge. Thank you very much."
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