Community workshops

Divine River is a local charity whose aim is to nurture sustainable personal care choices through delivery of a range of workshops and the development of an online portal.  Our objective is to provide a way for whole communities to develop a greater awareness and understanding of the environmental and wellbeing impacts of their personal care choices and enable them to provide solutions for themselves.

We know that sustainability and climate change is a critical issue for our society and a key concern for all.  Developing korero around this topic via our workshops and website helps enable individuals to make a difference for themselves, their whanau and their community.We provide a region wide programme of community and in-school workshops that nurture sustainable personal care choices and enable communities to find practical solutions to make a difference individually and collectively.

These community workshops are funding my Tindal Foundation and Tararua REAP. Divine River will be holding ‘How to Make Eco Period Pads’ from 9:30a.m. – 12:30p.m. at:

Thunderpants on Saturday mornings from 30th July to 5th September.

Please email: divinerivernz@gmail.com for enquiries.

Community Korero with Siv Fjaerestad

On 1 July South Wairarapa District Council announced its membership of the Immigration New Zealand (INZ)’s Welcoming Communities programme – Te Waharoa ki Ngā Hapori. 

South Wairarapa is one of 26 Councils now signed up to the scheme, which helps communities create welcoming environments for newcomers including migrants, former refugees and international students, and people moving from elsewhere in Aotearoa.

The Welcoming Communities approach creates inclusive communities by promoting and building strong connections between the receiving community and newcomers, practicing Whanaungatanga and Manaakitanga (a sense of belonging and hospitality). It actively involves members of the receiving community in welcoming activities. 

This approach was tested as a two-year pilot programme from July 2017 to June 2019, led by INZ in a joint approach with Councils, local communities and the Office of Ethnic Communities.  … Continue Reading

Chief Executive’s column

Climate change is definitely among us, as the recent downpours and flooding have proved. 

So it’s very relevant that Councillors have been attending workshops with our Climate Change Advisor Melanie Barthe, who has devised a two-pronged strategy around mitigation (reducing our greenhouse gas emissions) and adaptation (adapting to the effects of climate change). 

The Ruamāhanga Strategy and action plan gives the Council ways to reduce its own corporate emissions and to help the community to do so too. We as a Council are only too aware of the climate-related risks we are facing and we must adapt by identifying all our risks and how best to mitigate them. 

We are also not alone; we are working collaboratively with other Councils in the region and the Regional Council. You’ll find more information on Council’s climate change work on our Climate Change Wairarapa webpage. … Continue Reading

A charitable lot

There are twenty eight thousand charities registered for tax purposes in New Zealand with donations received exceeding four billion dollars. Two hundred thousand volunteers are working for these charitable organisations. 

The criteria be listed as a charity was establish under Queen Elizabeth with the charities act of 1601. These were further established by an English test case in 1891. New Zealand now operates under the NZ Charities Act of 2005. 

New Zealand listed charities have assets exceeding sixty billion dollars. While the vast majority are hand to mouth organisations using all the money received for their stated purpose there is concern that a small number are heavily involved in commercial undertakings. 

The charities commission is charged with checking all registered charities for irregularities but to date only four charities have been deregistered.