With its Fortitude Valley office flooded, Lifeline Community Recovery Officers were in the thick of flood ravaged Queensland clocking up over 1,000 face to face contacts providing psychological and emotional support to individuals and families.
On top of face to face counseling, Lifeline Australia general manager fundraising marketing & media Brendan Maher said volunteers are handling up to 1,300 telephone calls a day with a 50% increase in calls from people in Queensland and NSW.
While Lifeline is increasing volunteer hours to help, the demand is placing a strain on the organisation with increased demand on infrastructure. 'There are very real costs in terms of answering calls. Telephony, IT support. Each call costs Lifeline $40'.
Right up until rising waters forced Foodbank Australia's Morningside staff to move stock to higher shelves and evacuate the warehouse for their own safety, they were providing local agencies with breakfast cereals, juice and other essential supplies.
Foodbank Queensland general manager Ken McMillian said the current crisis will eclipse anything that has gone before. 'We know from experience that our services will be called on for many months following the initial crisis so we're planning for the long haul. And, of course, we'll also focus on maintaining our regular services to the agencies feeding people in need unaffected by the floods'.Â
Animal Welfare League of Queensland public relations manager Gabrielle Wheaton said she and a convoy of staff and volunteers made a mercy dash to the RSPCA's flooded Fairfield quarters and were caring for 22 of the RSPCA's dogs until the crisis passed.
She said working together, the welfare groups were able to ensure as many animals as possible were kept safe and returned to their owners as quickly as possible once waters receded.
However, Ms Wheaton also warned as the waters receded, dangers lurked for pets. 'Mosquitoes, ticks, cane toads, and snakes will be everywhere' she said.
Ms Wheaton encouraged all pet owners to prepare an evacuation plan that included their pets, and to ensure cats and dogs were microchipped with the correct contact information listed on their pets' microchip database.
The Australian Charities Fund and United Way have made a joint submission in response to the Commonwealth Treasury's discussion paper, 'Charitable fundraising regulation reform'.
