Gisborne contractors Gavin and Chrystal Edmonds are helping forestry workers not only recover from drug addictions, but they're also supporting them back into work.
Published: Rāhina, 28 Huitanguru, 2022 | Monday, 28 February 2022
Working onsite with heavy machines getting the logs ready for transhipment by truck for export. across the motu and the world.
Stirling Logging | Getting Good Workers Back in the Ngāhere
Ikaroa-Rāwhiti kaimahi from the Tūranganui-a-Kiwa office have partnered with Stirling Logging. The husband-and-wife duo are doing amazing mahi within their Cadetship Programme and they've also formed an Advisory Group with Te Puni Kōkiri to support and guide workers with a Meth Rehabilitation Programme.
Chrystal Edmonds (Ngāti Porou) says the couple figured if they could help local forestry workers, then why wouldn't they?
Husband-and-wife duo of Stirling Logging have had their own battles with methamphetamine addictions and now are helping others on the pathway to recovery.
“We saw a need in the logging industry where there wasn’t enough support for people who have made mistakes with drug abuse," she says.
“It takes about two weeks for them to clear the drugs out of their system and come right. Then over the next three to four weeks it’s managing them, getting them outside, doing normal garden jobs and things around the house, doing the dishes, getting back to actually waking up in the morning and having things to do."
Gavin Edmonds (Te Arawa) says, "our concept was getting some men, who were willing to change, back into the industry”
“One of our main drivers to get these men back into work is because, as contractors, all of us were complaining about the lack of skill and what a hard time we have training younger men coming up through the ranks.”
“When we've got all these experienced men that have done it for years sitting at home because you're on register or failed with drug tests somewhere and they're not allowed back in the estate,” Gavin says.
“Helping them with their meth addiction, getting over it, overcoming it, taking them into our own home, rehabbing them for three to four months and work placement afterwards."
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