No warm clothes, living in cold and damp overcrowded houses, shoes worn out, no
medical assistance. You’re left hungry for days, but you’re not old enough to take
matters in your own hands. You wonder why all your clothes have someone else’s
name on them, or why your sleeves are too small and your top rides up. You’re a girl
but your school uniform is different to everyone else’s, you have to wear pants
because all your siblings are boys and your parents can’t afford to buy more uniform.
Teachers get angry at you for not doing your homework that was set on the
computer. You’re too ashamed to say you don’t have a computer because everyone
will laugh. You miss out on school trips all the time. You hate mufti days because
you’re embarrassed of what you’re wearing. You can’t afford stationary. You’re stuck
wondering why teachers get angry at you for not having books or not being focused,
you missed breakfast only because you have no food. One in six European children live in poverty with Maori and Pasifika twice as likely to be affected, according to www.nzherald.co.nz . Child poverty is now a reality in New Zealand.
It’s never the child’s fault that they live in poverty; in saying this it’s not always
the parents fault either. Parents need to cover costs of housing, power and water,
stationary, uniform, doctor’s visits for when children fall ill, food, sports and other extracurricular hobbies. A lot of the time, parents cover costs like these for more than one child and sometimes even doing it by themselves as solo parents. It would be hard for low income jobs to cover these costs.
Many children slip in and out of poverty because of family circumstances like job
loss, redundancy, illness, costly medical treatments and separation of relationships.
Some of these can cause temporary poverty. Long term poverty is a lot more serious
as it can affect a child’s emotional, physical and social development skills. It may
also affect children later in life in the workforce. In 1982 the level of child poverty in
New Zealand was fourteen percent, it has increased dramatically since then. One in four children live in poverty, and 260,000 kiwi kids live in poverty. Also ten percent of these kids live in severe poverty, three out of five of the children living in poverty will continue to live this way for years and years to come, according to www.childpoverty.co.nz.
Many people find it strange and difficult to understand that there is child poverty in
New Zealand, and are amazed to learn we have one of the higher levels in the
developed world. Personally, I think there are more ways the government could help children and families in need. Firstly, I think the government needs to prioritise
poverty above all other issues. Children simply cannot learn effectively if they are hungry the government needs to provide fruit, bread, milk and water at every school in
New Zealand. I think doctors’ visits and prescriptions should be free for people 21
years and younger. I think that parents who are spending money on things like
drugs and alcohol instead of their kids need to prioritise as well. Another suggestion could be to issue a card similar to a eftpos card for families on low incomes this can only be used for groceries, power bills and doctor’s visits.
In conclusion I think more needs to be done about child poverty; this doesn’t mean
the government foots the bills. But I do think they play a big part. Because as I have
said it’s never a childs fault they live in poverty, nor should a child in New Zealand not
live without the basic necessities.
Kiana Rerekura
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