International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Christchurch) Incorporated

My name is Mandira mani. That's me in the profile shot with my two kids, Nadia and Nila. I grew up as part of the Hare Krsna community in Christchurch, New Zealand. I am appealing to you today to ask you to help us rebuild our temple which was destroyed in an earthquake in February 2011. The temple was the centre of our community and the home of our deities, Sri Sri Nitai Gaurachandra.

Those of you visiting this page from overseas might remember hearing about the Christchurch earthquakes in the news. What you might not know is that there were more earthquakes after the first big one—no fewer than 10,000 of them. There were sometimes seven or eight earthquakes a day. Everybody living in Christchurch was scared all the time because each earthquake had the potential to bring major destruction. Eventually one of them did: our temple survived the first earthquake, but the biggest of those 10,000 aftershocks brought it down. You might also not know that Nitai Gaurachandra fell from the altar and were broken that day.

Five years later, the rebuild has finally begun. We have been very lucky to get an insurance payout--lucky because the insurance company went bankrupt after the earthquake. The rebuild is being directed by Ramanuja Prabhu, our Temple President. Things are going well, and we are aiming to open the temple in January 2017. However, we have a problem in completing the temple: we no longer have enough money to finish the building. This is because there was so much red tape to get through before we could start the rebuild (five years worth of red tape!) that the money we were paid through the insurance settlement has depreciated while building costs have risen. We are short NZ$280,000 (US$200,000).

I’ve decided to try and reach to the wider public to try to raise the missing funds. Your donation will be used to complete the interior of the temple, including outfitting two kitchens (one for the devotees and one for the deities). Your donation will also honour the first generation Hare Krishna devotees who worked so hard to establish our temple, and it will be a great gift to second-generation devotees like me who want to pass it on to our children, the third generation. Please give generously. And even if you can't give anything, you can help us by sharing this link with your friends on your social networking sites, since the more exposure we get, the better. Or you can do both!

Thanking you in advance,

Mandira mani dasi

(Dr Mandala White)