Waipuna Youth and Community Trust is one of 21 services currently sponsored by the Hospitaller Order of St John of God in the Australasian Province (Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea).

The order today is to be found in every continent and in 55 countries. It is responsible for a spectrum of health care and social welfare services that range from general and psychiatric hospitals, through centers and services for the aged and disabled, to the humblest of rural health centers in developing countries.

The movement of compassion launched by John Cidade, at his hospital in Granada, Spain, has been carried down through 500 years by the Hospitallier Order of St John of God. This movement emerged from the group of employees, volunteers and benefactors who gathered around him in Granada.

John of God, whose life inspired the creation of the Hospitallier Order, grew up in a world not unlike our own with ethnic cleansing, terrible diseases and famines, a yawning chasm between rich and poor and a growing disrespect for human life. His early years were spent in Spain. He was an adventurous type who liked to travel and see new places. He was a run-away, and started his early working life as a shepherd, later becoming a soldier and an itinerant book peddler. He eventually settled down in Granada where he experienced a distressing period of hospitalization for psychiatric treatment. This experience moved him to devote the remainder of his life to being a carer of the forgotten person.

John created for the guests who were admitted to his hospitals and shelters, a home where they were welcomed and cared for without condition and their stories were heard. He, and those who worked alongside him, were professional and holistic in their approach to healing and their guests, strangers no more, were able to learn to live yet again and continue on their journey.