Financial Mentoring and Community Support: MBST Hosts Delegation from China
Māngere Budgeting Services Trust, based in Auckland, New Zealand, was honoured to welcome a delegation from the Municipal Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security of China.
The visit highlighted MBST’s role as a community leader in providing financial mentoring, financial literacy programmes, and food support services to help families build resilience.
It is a privilege that such a significant international organisation chose to visit MBST to learn more about our governance and leadership practices, as well as the breadth of services we provide to strengthen financial well-being and resilience in the community.
Our Key Services for Auckland Communities
At MBST, we work every day to strengthen financial well-being and community resilience in Auckland. During the visit, we showcased our core services:
Financial Mentoring Services - We provide tailored one-on-one support to help individuals and families navigate debt, manage money, and achieve long-term financial stability.
Free Financial Literacy Programmes- Our group and personalised education sessions equip participants with practical skills to make informed financial decisions and improve financial confidence.
Social Supermarket and Food Support- Through our social supermarket in Māngere, families facing hardship can access food with dignity, cultural relevance, and choice — ensuring that no one in our community goes hungry.
The exchange was also a valuable opportunity to learn from the delegation’s own experiences and explore how communities around the world can be supported to thrive. We discovered many shared challenges and solutions, reinforcing that there is much more in common between our organisations than we might have imagined.
Impact of MBST in 2025
In the 2025 financial year, MBST delivered measurable impact by:
Supporting 4,018 people through the Building Financial Capability Service
Delivering Financial Literacy Courses to 1,871 participants
Provided food assistance to 13,000 people via our Social Supermarket
Offered counselling support to 334 individuals
Building Global and Local Partnership
The exchange was also a valuable opportunity to learn from the delegation’s own experiences and explore how communities worldwide can be supported to thrive. We discovered many shared challenges and solutions, reinforcing that our work in South Auckland is part of a much larger global effort to address financial hardship.
Lara Dolan, MBST Chief Executive, said:
Lara Dolan, MBST Chief Executive, said: “This visit was a testament to the strength of our governance and leadership and to the value of the services we provide every day. It is inspiring to see international organisations recognising the role of community-led responses in addressing financial hardship and supporting long-term well-being.”
Our Board Chair Dee Lodhia reflected: “It was empowering and humbling to share insights of similarities in the challenges we mutually face in the financial social enterprise sector, despite the differences in our relative size. The Beijing-based social services organisation served over 2 million people, while MBST, who predominantly serve the communities in South Auckland, empowered over 5,000 clients and fed over 13,000 persons. There were a lot of takeaways for us as a governance team.”
Why This Matters for Auckland and New Zealand
MBST’s work demonstrates how community budgeting services in Auckland can make a global impact. By combining local action with international collaboration, we are helping families overcome hardship and build financial resilience for the future.