Miss Universe NZ pays it back
Farm girl turned beauty queen and teacher helping children who have gone without.
I saw education as a way of creating a stable future for myself, to try and get [my family] out of what we were in when I was younger.
It’s a bitter, wet winter’s morning in South Auckland. Classrooms sit half empty as kids without raincoats, jumpers, shoes and lunches are forced to stay at home, unable to brave the biting cold temperatures.
One-time Miss Universe New Zealand Tania Dawson is a media and drama teacher at Southern Cross Campus, a decile one school in the heart of Mangere East.
“I see exactly what went through growing up, with these kids,” Dawson said.
“A lot of kids don’t come to school because they don’t have the uniform or lunch. [Some] parents didn’t send them to school because people are ashamed not being able to provide for their children.
“That largely impacts their learning at the end of the day.”
Dawson has been doing her part by providing necessities to keep a child warm, happy and healthy through Variety’s Kiwi Kid sponsorship programme and has also been
IHWatch video at nzherald.co.nz helping this year’s Miss Universe NZ finalists do the same.
The 23-year-old grew up on a farm with her five siblings and went to Rosehill College in Papakura. “Our family really struggled in terms of finance. My siblings and I didn’t have everything that other kids had and we all worked at a very young age,” Dawson said. Dawson got her first job at 8 at the livestock auctions in Pukekohe, to help make ends meet.
“A lot of the time me and my brothers did go to school without [lunch]. My friends’ mothers used to pack extra lunch for them, to give to me,” she said.
The teacher entered Miss Universe New Zealand in 2016 to promote education and support children living in poverty with the help of Variety.
“I saw education as a way of creating a stable future for myself, to try and get [my family] out of what we were in when
Dawson said.
She doesn’t regret her upbringing, saying it helped build character, but she wants to make sure other children don’t have to struggle.
She has been mentoring this year’s 20 Miss Universe NZ finalists in the Entrepreneurial Challenge, which sees them raise money through such things as bake sales and fashion shows to support disadvantaged kids.
Half the proceeds will go towards I was younger,” Variety’s Kiwi Kid sponsorship programme, to provide essentials for children — clothes, shoes, stationery, bedding and medicine.
The other half will help fund the contestant’s journey to the final, which will be held in August.
“If these girls can manage to sponsor one child [each] . . . that is 20 children’s lives that can be changed,” Dawson said.
There are 400 kids on the waiting list to receive support from Variety.
Variety chief executive Lorraine Taylor said it was hugely inspirational that the women wanted to help local kids.
“We know there are children going to school cold because they don’t have closed-in shoes, they don’t have warm enough clothes, their parents can’t afford their winter uniform.
“So it means that [sponsorship] actually starts to provide them equity, in that the children get to be just like their peers.”
Miss Universe New Zealand has raised $105,000 for Variety’s Kiwi Kids sponsorship programme since 2013.
Tania Dawson