March 07, 2018
Kids charity expanding as need grows
The Kids Can charity has marked New Zealand Children’s Day by expanding the number of schools it works with to over 700.
Founder Julie Chapman says when the charity started 13 years ago it focused on the way food insecurity affected children’s learning.
It also contributes clothing to keep tamariki warm and dry, more recently health and hygeine products, especially for teenage girls.
The 709 schools in the programme are all between decile 1 and 4.
"Around 70 percent of the children we assist are Maori and Pasifika. We obviously want to ensure we can take some of that pressure off for their parents. There’s a lot of judgment about people that aren’t able to necessarily provide everything for their kids and in my experience most people are absolutely trying to do the best with what they have," Ms Chapman says.
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