They are at the front-line of any emergency but now the Country Women's Association of NSW is running out of money to help those living in drought-affected regions.
The CWA of NSW has only weeks left of allocated funds for disaster relief with just under $500,000 in the coffers.
Since July 2018, CWA has paid out around $14.5 million in NSW to help people in drought with household expenses from groceries to fuel.
But CWA of NSW chief executive Danica Leys said in four to five weeks cash grants and care packages may have to stop.
"Demand is still high but at some point we will run out of funds," Ms Leys said.
Ms Leys said the CWA of Australia had written to the Federal Government in September outlining what they did with the initial $5 million that was allocated to CWA ($2m to NSW) and flagged they were close to running out and put a request in for more funds.
But they have not heard back since.
The CWA of NSW has been supplying grants of up to $3000 for household expenses from money that has been underpinned by private (mums and dads) to corporate donations from Coles and Red Cross.
"Donations come in fits and spurts and in the last couple of days because we have done some media we have received a few cheques in the mail for about $10,000," she said.
"We have one fund it all goes into..money goes in and money goes out and we don't take any administration fees.
"But our funds are dwindling down. At the rate it's going out, we are authorising about $125,000 worth of payments a week.
"So simple maths is, we have about four to five weeks based on what we have left.
"We may receive more donations in the meantime that could give us additional weeks."
She said what the CWA had not been able to do was offer a second round of grants to those that had applied more than 12 months ago.
"There are no repeat applications," she said.
When people send in their application, she said they would attach their bills with everything from electricity to rates, domestic water charges, medical and around 20 per cent going towards education expenses.
The CWA has also conducted heat mapping of funds distributed with the majority heading towards the New England north west and far west areas of the state recently.
"Household expenses are things that everyone has to pay for whether you are in the country or the city, you can't scale back on those things they are not optional," she said.
"But they are type of things people are having to make hard choices about at this time and they shouldn't have to."
Journalist based on the Mid North Coast for The Land.
Journalist based on the Mid North Coast for The Land.
