The devastating impact of the 2019 bushfires is still very fresh in our minds with vivid memories of hundreds of thousands of hectares of bushland being burnt out, millions of wildlife getting caught in the inferno's as well as people losing their houses and some even their lives.

Nymoida is a town not in our 2480 postcode, it is south of Grafton but there is a man and his mother that need help and when the Lismore App received and email from G'Day Farmers Mark Cockburn asking for assistance we gladly went about writing this story.

Mark and his wife work on behalf of Australian Mercy on a project called G'Day Farmer (https://australianmercy.org/projects/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIuYGDifHs6QIVgiQrCh1hOgqIEAAYASAAEgLUK_D_BwE).

G'Day Farmers vision is to help our Aussie farmers and their surrounding community who are doing it tough, in order to help get them back on their feet.

Mark explains more "Our current project is focused on the Tabulam and Nymboida areas west of Ballina and Grafton, wherein we are working to provide temporary housing to those who lost their homes during the 2019/2020 bushfires, by way of providing outfitted shipping containers that are fully insulated"

"Our role in this project, is to travel around these areas looking for those who really are needing warm and dry shelter. In that effort, we have come across a man who along with his mum, lived in a rented house on a property along Glens Creek Road Nymboida. Naturally, we cannot mention names, but sadly, the house they were renting was burned to the ground, thus forcing the man's mother to relocate to town - where we understand she is not doing well at all, while the man has relocated to a friend's property."

"My wife and I have personally seen where this man is living. It looks like a small outside meat house, he's on a dirt floor and, the white ants have moved in. Because he is living on another person's property, we can't give him a container, but we then realised that if we could find him a caravan, he could take that with him should he decide to move."

"As you can appreciate, as there were 105 houses lost in this area, rental properties are like 'hen's teeth', and these two people love living together in the bush."

So what can we as a community do for this helpless man and his mother?

Mark said, "We are needing about a 15' - 20' caravan that doesn't leak - something in which this man and his mum can be warm and dry until such time that they can find further accommodation. It doesn't have to be registered - the Police advise that so long as it is 'road worthy', we can get an 'Interim Slip', which allows us to tow it to the property. We are prepared to take care of all arrangements to relocate the van from the current owner's property to this man's location."

Mark is hoping that some kind and generous reader of the Lismore App will such a caravan that they can donate. If this is you, contact Mark by phone on 0418 297 295 or email mark.cockburn53@gmail.com.