A place where ‘everyone’s in the same boat’
After one birth was followed by five miscarriages, Karley Gillum was about to stop trying for more children.
Then, she found a fertility support group that gave her hope.
‘‘There is no way I would have three children if it wasn’t for that group,’’ Gillum said. ‘‘I would have given up.’’
But the Fertility NZ Taranaki Support Group stopped in recent years, so Gillum and fellow group member Jodene Vannieuwenhuyze have decided to start it up again.
They were part of the last group, and say it changed their lives.
Gillum was diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome, which causes cysts, after she and her husband, Simon, went to the doctor when they were struggling to have another child.
She was put on fertility medicine and managed to conceive Ollie, now 6.
‘‘I was told if I wanted another baby to start things straight away.’’
So Gillum went back on the medicine, and started trying six months later.
‘‘I miscarried five times,’’ she said. ‘‘After each time it just got harder and harder.’’
Gillum heard about the group through a friend, and convinced herself to go along. ‘‘I got so much out of it.’’ She now has Nixon, 3, who was an IVF baby, and Quinn, her ‘‘wee miracle’’, who is 3 months old and was conceived naturally.
The group is a place where ‘‘everyone’s in the same boat with a completely different situation’’, Gillum said.
And because everyone understands what others are going through, they provide comfort, she said.
Vannieuwenhuyze felt exactly the same.
When she and husband Clint struggled to conceive, she was told both her fallopian tubes were blocked. ‘‘So we started on our IVF journey.’’
Vannieuwenhuyze has had three rounds of IVF, and has a 2-year-old son, Sam.
She was told about the group when she started IVF, and went along.
‘‘It’s just someone to talk to and just know that you are normal,’’ she said. ‘‘And know you’re not the only one suffering from fertility issues.’’
– The group is meeting on May 4, between 7-9pm, at Do Box in New Plymouth’s Quarter Bank on Devon St West and everyone is welcome. It will meet on the first Tuesday of every month.
About 80 per cent of staff working at New Zealand’s visa application centre are direct employees of a company owned by the Beijing police, inflaming concerns that the Chinese Government could access information about citizens trying to leave the country.
Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi said he was happy with security arrangements at the centre, which the Government says protects the privacy of people applying for visas.
But the practice has caused grave concern in other countries using similar arrangements.
‘‘I cannot think of a more promising entry point for China’s cyber-spies,’’ said Richard Fadden, a former director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.
He told Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper that Ottawa should end the arrangement in Beijing to make sure ‘‘an instrument of the Chinese Government’’ cannot possibly have access to immigration and refugee data.
In New Zealand’s case, the company that manages overseas visa applications, VFS Global, subcontracts its work in Beijing to another company, Beijing Shuangxiong Foreign Service
Company. That entity is partly owned by the municipal Public Security Bureau, a feared arm of the security apparatus that controls movements inside and out of China.
Companies operating in China must partner with a local company, but not all those companies are owned by organisations like the police. Australia, despite also contracting work to VFS, does not use the same company as New Zealand in Beijing.
Immigration NZ and VFS Global’s parent company said there were strict data security measures in place to make sure no subcontractors could access private data and only authorised staff who are strictly vetted can work in visa centres.
The 80 per cent ratio was similar to what would be seen in other offices worldwide and most of the workers were administrative, said Peter Brun of VFS Global.
‘‘Only authorised employees are allowed to work in our visa application centres,’’ he said. ‘‘All employees undergo a deep identity, credit, and criminal record check before being hired.’’
Canada’s Beijing visa application office uses the same policeowned company. An investigation by the Globe and Mail found 86 per cent of staff were employees of the police-owned company.
Faafoi and the New Zealand Government have said they were aware from the outset that the application centre had a connection to the Chinese police but Immigration NZ has maintained that ‘‘the Beijing Public Security Bureau has no ownership of, or connection to, Immigration NZ’s Beijing visa processing office’’.
Faafoi said he was still happy with security at the centre.
‘‘What I was told is when the centre was set up, [before] our time in government, those concerns were flagged and processes were put in place to mitigate concerns at the time,’’ Faafoi said.
Officials had recently checked on the centre and were happy with the arrangements, he said.