Schoolboy's only shoes

‘Shoes’ is probably too fancy a word for the dilapidated, scuffed, threadbare objects in the photo, right. But they are the ‘‘shoes’’ of an Auckland teacher’s students.

These shoes, disintegrating daily, were the only thing the student had to protect his feet on his walk to and from school, to wear when he played sport, to wear through the cold, wet winter hoping they would dry overnight because his parents can’t afford to buy him another pair.

And he isn’t alone. As the founder of KidsCan, I get the phone calls and emails from principals about the confronting real-life examples of just what a struggle daily life has become for many families. As soon as the school gates opened for 2018, one teacher told me, 50 of the school’s 250 students had arrived without suitable footwear.

Shoes are one of those basic items families living in material hardship often go without. When it comes to choosing paying the rent, keeping the power on or buying food, shoes get pushed aside.

KidsCan gave this young boy a new pair of shoes – shoes that actually protect his feet and allow him to participate.

I believe the Government and all New Zealanders want a country that is a great place for children to grow up in. However, we need to admit that, despite the Government’s new families package coming in July, life is not going to improve for children and their families overnight.

Families only just surviving now in households that earn less than 50 per cent of the median income would need a significant increase for it to make any lasting difference to their material hardship.

Small increases will be eaten up by costs such as rising rent and petrol costs – it won’t stay in their pockets, able to be spent on the basics, like shoes or a raincoat, that their children are missing out on through no fault of their own.

In another phone call, a school from Northland recently asked us for soap because it had had to open the school shower to its students before, during and after school.

The tales of material hardship from school grounds confirm what we know to be true – things are getting harder for those living in hardship. We’re now feeding 32,000 children a week, most of whom need KidsCan food daily, in 16 regions.

Yes, there are a lot of compassionate Kiwis out there, and we’re lucky to have the support of our principal partner Meridian Energy, our supporters and sponsors, but as a country we need to acknowledge just how bad material hardship is for children in our own backyard.

So, what can make 2018 the year of change? What I’m interested in witnessing this year is Government policy that drives real change for children and their families. I want to see families in stable housing, not having to endure the stress of frequently moving because they can’t afford the rent, being able to provide their children with three good meals a day. We want children to have their own bed, their own towel, their own toothbrush. Children to have a raincoat and more than one pair of shoes.

For young women to be able to live with dignity and have access to feminine hygiene products. KidsCan provided more than

18,000 sanitary items to schools in

2017 and the need is increasing. Child poverty isn’t just costing the families living in hardship, it’s costing us all. According to the

2017 Child Poverty Monitor, the economic cost to the country is as much as $10 billion a year. That’s why KidsCan is focused on being the fence at the top of the cliff, not just the ambulance at the bottom, when it comes to tackling poverty.

KidsCan’s choice is to be part of the solution, what will yours be?

For the full text, see: stuff.co.nz

There are any number of sad, harrowing, possibly even depressing, stories in the media. Sometimes that’s the nature of the business. It can’t all be good or inspiring: People who should know better, who we tend to look up to, admitting to cheating at the top level of a beloved sport; crime and its consequences for both victim and perpetrator; the fallout from the actions of dictators and their admirers around the world.

But none of that is as depressing or as poignant as a single photo of what constitutes the one pair of shoes owned by one Kiwi kid. Unfortunately, no doubt, one of many.

The photo, taken by a teacher at an Auckland intermediate school, has been shared with the public by Julie Chapman, the founder of charity KidsCan, to demonstrate what some children live with, and to try to give the rest of us some sense of what it’s like to walk in the dilapidated shoes of poverty in modern, wealthy, egalitarian New Zealand.

The footwear looks like it’s been chucked in the direction of a bored, ravenous dog, ripped to near-shreds and then handed back to their young owner.

As shoes they barely qualify; as any sort of barrier against water, the cold, pretty much anything else, they are close to useless.

Poverty in New Zealand. Many of us don’t believe it or struggle to comprehend, despite such damning evidence. Surely, in a country of such great bounty and benevolence, it can’t be true.

In reality, that doesn’t matter. It’s probably irrelevant. More worrying and depressing is imagining the path down which these young, poorly protected feet are pointed.

All the statistics show they are more likely to head towards the darker, poorly lit backroads of New Zealand society, towards poor health and education outcomes, unemployment, substance abuse, mental health issues and crime.

All of those and more will come at considerable cost to the wearer, the victim of his or her crimes, the community they live in and the wider society.

In effect, that’s all of us paying a substantial amount of money towards more healthcare, support for victims, higher welfare costs and billion-dollar prisons.

Again, our attitude to poverty is irrelevant. The basic question that we need to consider and answer is: Do we pay earlier or later? Because the cost is real and substantial.

If we put aside our various prejudices about parenting and the lack of, if we simply decided that this child and so many others will get the shoes they need – and the food, the books, the support, etc – will that cost less than the sadly inevitable ambulance waiting at the bottom of the cliff?

On that, here’s a number to think on: $10,000. That’s how much it costs to support a person out of jail and keep them on the right path. The cost to look after them in prison for one year? Closer to $100,000.

You do the math.