Fire Safety in Tiapora, NZ

Form a Community Action Group - then Act

Enough is enough

One more house fire. Three more dead. When will it end? Five angry mothers from this coastal Maori community of 500 said “now.” When the women complained to their overworked administrator that something had to be done, she threw the ball back at them: “If you want change, you’ll have to do it yourself. I can’t handle another thing. See if New Earth Village can help.” They did.

Taking action

Within weeks, seventeen other communities from four countries had joined their fire safety wiki. In six months, a fire safety program tailored for indigenous communities had been completed and certified by fire safety officials in all three countries. One year later, nine communities had met their own program’s standards: every house had smoke alarms, twice yearly safety checks and a trained fire safety warden.

The Point:

Joining with others beyond your community to carry out an initiative generates momentum - energy for change.  Things get done because nobody wants to let the team down.  As well, ideas are more numerous and richer, resulting in better solutions and rapid community change.