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Canberra Today 15°/17° | Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Kiwi company helps rough sleepers rug up

NZ-BASED company Macpac and the NZ High Commission jointly presented sleeping bags, jackets and other warm gear to St Vincent de Paul yesterday to help some of Canberra’s homeless rug up throughout the cold winter.

Vinnies CEO Paul Trezise, left, receives a donation of outdoor gear from Macpac's Jeanette Kuoni and New Zealand High Commissioner Martyn Dunne. Photo by Brent McDonald.
Vinnies CEO Paul Trezise, left, receives a donation of outdoor gear from Macpac’s Jeanette Kuoni and New Zealand High Commissioner Martyn Dunne. Photo by Brent McDonald.
NZ high commissioner Martyn Dunne said the brand, which has 14 stores in Australia, had received “world renown for its mountaineering, hiking and tramping equipment”.

“This is very good equipment to make sure [rough sleepers] are not going to suffer from the cold, which is going to lead to ill health and all sorts of other problems,” Mr Dunne said.

The high commissioner recently took part in the CEO Sleepout run by St Vincent de Paul where he slept outdoors in a sleeping bag that was donated to him by Macpac.

The same sleeping bag was part of the donation along with another one of the same design and other warm gear like puffer jackets, merino wool shirts and gloves.

The donation, valued at a couple of thousand dollars in total, was presented to the CEO of the St Vincent de Paul Society of Canberra and Goulburn, Paul Trezise, by Mr Dunne and Macpac’s Canberra retail manager, Jeanette Kuoni.

Mr Trezise said that according to the 2011 census, which was conducted in mid-winter, there were 35 people found to be “sleeping rough” on the streets in Canberra, however he said Vinnies finds that number generally varies from about 30 to 80 people, with even more people sleeping outside in the summertime.

“For donations like this we really reserve them for the people who need them the most.” Mr Trezise said.

It is very hard to find good quality winter clothing, according to Trezise, especially for men because they tend to wear their clothing until it falls apart.

The Vinnies chief executive said that there were about 1800 homeless people in Canberra, but that most were living in overcrowded dwellings, crisis refuges and cars, or just “couch surfing” with relatives or friends.

“Obviously the rough sleeping is the most extreme and most uncomfortable part of that, but it is only one part of the total problem with homelessness, and organisations like ours try to target the whole lot,” he said.

“We have programs where we try to encourage people who are on the street to try and get them housing… we don’t try and encourage them to stay on the street but some people, for a variety of reasons, don’t want to accept that help.”

Words: Natasha Quinlan

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