Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - BONUS: David Letele On How The Vulnerable Are Struggling During Cyclone Gabrielle

Episode Date: February 13, 2023

New Zealander of the year, David Letele chats about how the vulnerable of Aotearoa are struggling and how we can helpSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Hits, the Jono and Ben podcast. I hope everyone's doing okay as the wild weather hit overnight and continues to do so this morning. David Letelli, Kiwi Bank New Zealander of the Year, retired professional boxer, does some amazing work in the community with his organisation BBM. David Morena. Morena team. Good to have you on, buddy. Seeing you on the news, you're working hard out there with the vulnerable in the

community, but we understand your traps. You can't get out of your house. Yeah, there's a massive trap down right outside the house. I stay out in Henderson Valley, so we're affected by the floods as well. And now, yeah, trees all down through our street.

So, yeah, it forced me to have a late start today. I mean, you probably deserve to have a bit of a rest because you do so much great work out there in the community. And it must be really heartbreaking to see, you know, families that were affected by the floods now being affected again by the cyclone. Yeah, look, it's really heartbreaking.

I visited a house yesterday, which was a kind of auto home. And, you know, the carpet had been ripped out, but that's all that's happened, and they've been left to stay there. They were still sleeping on the mattresses that were soaked by the floods two weeks ago. And then this lady lost her son on the night of the floods. You've got a mum and their babies, another house sleeping on a table. It's just heartbreaking stuff, and you just think, how's this been left to happen?

We're in a good position where we're able to help, but it's really sad. Yeah, there are people out there doing it tough, and there'll be people listening to you now, David, or people who see you on the news and all the great work you do with BBM. How can they help? Oh, look, you know, it's as simple as even sharing a post. You know, if you want to make

a donation, you can just go to our website, which is www.thebbmprogram.com That's T-H-E B-B-M-P-R-O-G-R-A-M dot com. Looking for donations of money rather than sort of physical items?

Yeah, it's either that or non-perishable food. At the moment, we're doing a big drive on, we're going out and buying washing machines, fridges, beds, couches. I mean, these families, they've literally lost everything. That house I went into yesterday had nothing. Not one piece of furniture,

just only the mattresses that were wet from two weeks ago. So by the time the day finished, they had couches, they had a fridge, they had a washing machine. We took about six beds in there. So the money that we've raised, it's been amazing. But when you're having to bid out whole houses, it's not going to go very far, you know? So we'll do as much as possible. Everything we

get goes to where it's needed. And so what would your prediction be? How many people are in a similar situation like that, that really do need help and don't have anything left? Oh man, it'll be thousands. I mean, you know, we did a tally, just in Mangere at the

evacuation centre that we would have been helping. There's over 10,000 parcels have gone, have been distributed just through that evacuation centre. When I went to that house yesterday, the whole block was calling order. And when I turned up in our BBM van, everyone came out and asked for help

it's heartbreaking because you can't, we want to help everyone but we're not able to at the moment we just try and do the best we can but literally the whole block came out to us Well David, thank you for everything you are doing out there in the community each day and I imagine you're not getting

much rest with everything going on and if people want to help out, head to that website that David said before, and hopefully we can help out a few families that really need it at the moment. Thanks so much, team. Appreciate it.

And you know, people like David are out there, they're helping the community, but they're dealing with their own stuff at home as well. He's got a tree down, he can't get out of his bloody house. Great Kiwi you are, David.

Keep up the good work. Thanks, team. See you later.