MONIQUE FORD/Stuff
Aotearoa is now home to Aisha Al Kobbaji, Khaled Al Jouja, Mohammad, Hamida, Suleiman, and Layth who fled Syria during the ongoing civil war.
A piece of paper formalised it: an unceremonious but utterly symbolic certificate announcing their citizenship meant the Al Jouja/Kobbaji family were now officially New Zealanders. “I’m a Kiwi now, just like you,” former Syrian refugee Mohammad Al Jouja says. He s laughing as he says that. The days of war and persecution are behind him now. It’s written all over his face. For Khaled Al Jouja, Aisha Al Kobbaji and their children Mohammad, 16, Hamida, 15, Suleiman, 10, and little Layth, 2, it wasn’t just the long-awaited citizenship that made them feel at home here in Aotearoa. It was the people.
The investigation, which began in July last year, was launched after an inmate allegedly arranged the trafficking of drugs into New Zealand using illicit cell phones. From March 23, until May 13 last year, no visitors were allowed into the prison, due to New Zealand being under alert levels 3 and 4.
The most common items of contraband found during lockdown at Rimutaka Prison were communication devices. Responding to questions from
Stuff, prison director Viv Whelan said while visitors could not smuggle in contraband in during the lockdown there were other methods, concealed on a prisoner’s body when they come into a prison, posted in with mail or property, thrown over perimeter fencing, or made using every day items with the prison.
Revered taonga carvings stolen from Lower Hutt charity
8 Jan, 2021 12:20 AM
3 minutes to read
The three carvings were the only things stolen in the burglary. Photo / Supplied
A Lower Hutt charity is pleading for the return of revered taonga stolen from its front window after Christmas.
The set of manaia carvings sat inside the window of the Common Unity Project Aotearoa s (CUPA) Remakery hub in the Hutt suburb of Fairfield, but the window was smashed and the carvings stolen sometime after Christmas.
The carvings were gifted to the charity three years ago by men serving time at Rimutaka Prison, and wore korowai made by the wāhine of the Remakery.
CORRECTIONS/SUPPLIED
One of the Urban Kai Network s five farms at Rimutaka Prison. Common Unity founder Julia Milne co-ordinates the project, which produces meals for children at four schools and for Women s Refuge. More than 30 inmates, seven charity staff and a base of 300 volunteers harvest the crops, which are made into meals at their community kitchen and base, the ReMakery, in the Lower Hutt suburb of Fairfield, and distributed around the community to at least four schools and Women s Refuge. Common Unity founder Julia Milne said last year, 40,000 meals were produced as a result of the project. But in September, the contraband find, which Milne labelled a “really significant security breach” has meant changes have been made to the way the charity and Corrections operate.
RNZ
The Auckland City Mission says it s handing out just as many food parcels as it was during the peak of the first lockdown.
Kōkiri Marae’s Teresea Olsen won’t turn anyone away hungry from the pātaka kai. Especially at this time of the year. The food-gifting programme, based in the Lower Hutt suburb of Wainuiomata, gives out more than 250 food parcels each week but shuns the means-testing used by the established foodbanks. “Asking people why it is they don’t have enough money when they are on the benefit is absolutely stupid to me – you can’t live off the benefit.”