Homes of Hope's upgrades of their house Kereru goes beyond renovation by restoring children's sense of security and mana.

As a charity organisation, Homes of Hope provide homes for children who have experienced trauma, and ensure siblings are kept together.

Homes of Hope has recently upgraded their house Kereru, receiving more than $14,000 from New Zealand Community Trust to support renovations.

Built in the late-1970s, Kereru was run down and in need of a spruce up, says Homes of Hope practice manager Carena Grant.

'It's a very old house and it definitely needed a good lick of paint.”

While some of Kereru house has had touch-ups from new lino, carpet, a new bathroom vanity and fresh paint – the home's kitchen has had a complete redo.

'The kitchen the way it was, was just not functional,” says Carena. 'There were cupboards in non-functional places. I'm 5'2 and I couldn't reach them, so you can imagine if the kids were trying to get something.”

Keeping up with Healthy Homes standards, the kitchen also has a new range hood installed.

The charity gives special thanks to Sean Wood at Creative Kitchens & Interiors, who significantly reduced the costs for the kitchen's redo.

'We're incredibly grateful to him because the reality of being a charity, we wouldn't have been able to do that without his help and support,” says Carena.

Children's wellbeing

Having a good living environment is important to children's wellbeing, says Carena.

'Visuals often tell you your value and worth, and so having a nice space ‘A': they feel valuable, but ‘B': it teaches them to take pride in their environment and to look after it.”

Carena says the renovation instils a sense of pride in children for their home.

'It instils pride further than just for the property. They start to take that on for themselves and then you start to see shifts in behaviour because they start to feel more like they're valuable and it supports their mana to be rebuilt.”

Another key feature for Kereru House's upgrades is having blackout curtains for the children's bedrooms.

'It sounds ironic but it actually gives them a sense of security because they know they're thicker curtains and know people can't look through their curtain at them so it creates that sense of safety for them,” says Carena who adds that for children who have come from trauma backgrounds, having blackout curtains can make a massive difference to a child's sleep as they're often sensitive to light and will wake early, particularly during daylight saving when it's lighter earlier in the morning.

'Our kids can have that nice environment which is part of helping them settle and making them feel stable.”