Marama Renata is trying to raise $70,000.00 so her brain-damaged son, Neihana, can walk in the park.
The Rotorua Daily Post is looking back at the stories of 2023. Here’s what made headlines in August.
August 1
Ram-raiders who smashed through the entrance of a Rotorua shopping centre drove a vehicle about 60 metres into the mall before targeting four stores inside.
Black tyre marks could beseen on the floor where the ram-raiders drove the vehicle through the southern entrance,facing Victoria St, to one of the stores inside.
Prior to starting work two months ago, Gordon says she had been on the benefit.
“It’s pretty awesome actually to get out there and actually make money.”
Gordon recently completed the Miss Rotorua Mana Wāhine programme — an eight-week course that helps women who have been unemployed for longer than 12 months to find work.
Vanessa Gordon got her first job after completing the Miss Rotorua Mana Wahine course - a new programme which helps women who have been unemployed for longer than 12 months to find work. Photo / Andrew Warner
August 12
Little Neihana Renata was bumbling around on his wobbly feet and legs exploring life and learning — just like any other toddler.
It was 2016 and he was attending daycare in Rotorua when he was served cut-up apple — food which at the time the Ministry of Education did not recommend for children so young.
He choked and was starved of oxygen for 30 minutes.
Today, he’s severely brain damaged.
He’s still unable to put one foot in front of the other and lives his life being moved from sitting in a wheelchair, standing in a frame or lying down.
Neihana’s mum Marama Renata said: “We were at the playground and I was watching children running around and I thought to myself, ‘He needs to use his legs’.”
She began researching and came across the Trexo walker.
Road workers and drainlayers are ditching New Zealand for Australia, where they can make more money and work all year round, industry figures say.
The “exodus” adds to fears for the roading and civil works sector as “massive infrastructure deficit and massive maintenance issues” plague the country, with Rotorua’s council saying shortages are driving up costs.
Graham Rodgers, of recruitment agency Success Group, said in winter, the civil workforce decreased because many projects were weather-dependent and “if it’s wet, they can’t work”.
