Ingrid Tiriana: Sense of community spirit is vital

Everybody needs good neighbours - indeed.

The other morning a neighbour came to the door asking us to keep an eye out for their wee dog which had gone missing. It's one of those cute little black poodle types and they have two of them.

Our neighbour was rightly concerned - we live in a road frequented by trucks, where people like to speed and which has parks in all directions and vast areas of paddock.

I said I'd go out and look for it and as I was walking around the neighbourhood saw several other people obviously doing the same, stopping to briefly chat to one woman who was walking her dog and helping with the search.

We spotted something black moving around in a crop paddock but it turned out to be a cat. A few minutes later, just as I was contemplating jumping the fence to wander through the paddocks, I noticed a group had formed outside the neighbour's driveway.

As I joined them I was told the dog had been found. Turned out it had managed to get itself locked in somewhere inside the house. All's well that ends well. We all went our various ways.

It was nice that other people had joined the search, that other people cared enough to take time out of their days. That's how a neighbourhood should be.

We know one set of neighbours well enough to ask them to keep an eye on things while we're away on holiday, to check the mail or witness a passport application but I don't know all my neighbours well.

So it was comforting to know that if I were in a predicament, I wouldn't have to look too far to find people who would be willing to help me out.

At the weekend neighbours around the country celebrated Neighbours Day Aotearoa, aimed at "turning strangers into neighbours and streets into neighbourhoods" and encouraging people to engage in "acts of neighbourliness".

It's a great concept. We never know when we might need help, whether it be to find a missing pet, or assist in some other way. We should take an interest in our neighbourhood.

Family members aren't always nearby or readily available in times of need so sometimes we have to call on our neighbours. It's nice then if they are not complete strangers and I guess that's what Neighbours Day Aotearoa is about.

You don't have to be best buddies but friendliness and having a passing acquaintance is a great thing.

Have you ever heard of the "kampong spirit"? It's a Singaporean concept which, very basically, is based on trust, friendship and the sharing of resources, leading to caring, happy communities.

During tough times Singaporeans in villages, or kampongs, joined resources to form economies of scale. What developed were strong communities where people knew one another well, helped one another and looked out for others. They became like families. Responsibilities were shared and everyone was involved in village life.

There are efforts now to revive the so-called kampong spirit in Singapore but some are sceptical that in today's modern world, where people have so much more, it can be replicated. It would be nice to think it could.

People are certainly a lot busier going about their own business these days but I know of streets in Rotorua where the kampong spirit lives on - to as great an extent as is possible nowadays.

We all like to feel happy, safe and comfortable in the environment in which we live and we would like to think that if members of our families or friends needed help, their neighbours would look out for them.

The best way to ensure you have good neighbours then, is to be one. You never know when you might need help.

-Ingrid Tiriana is a freelance writer based in Rotorua.