Thinking of mothers and others

Listen, Christmas is not just for children. It is for everyone but maybe especially for those mothers who go beyond meeting the needs of their own brood to help other families.

Not always easy but members of Invercargill’s Pregnancy Help has given more than 40 years of practical assistance to two generations of Southlanders caught with unexpected pregnancies, without the organisation and support planned pregnancies might bring.

Sometimes it is a surprise first baby and sometimes a surprise later-life arrival but whether the mother-to-be is a teenager or a woman close to middle age, the problems call for non-judgmental help, for maybe assistance in clearing fences, maybe for comfort and help and for the provision of the 101 material items required for a new babe.

It is incredible how much gear a new baby needs and great it can be accessed through the Pregnancy Help network, which includes many who knit for the newborn.

Long-time member Marita Moynihan and president Dianne Acker share the same philosophy about their reason for being; to continue the work of caring and providing for these surprise new babes and their mothers.

Also this week it was the break-up and prizegiving for graduands of MyPlace, Murihiku, the teenage learning centre for young parents, whose babes are cared for at the creche next door.

These young women are impressive, moving through the NCEA levels while caring for their children and often managing a part-time job.

Director Judy Buckley is proud of them: we all should be, of girls like Jennifer, awarded the prize for leadership, passing exams, caring for her little daughter, working part-time, hoping to be accepted into nursing training next year, following the career choice of her mother and older sister.

Alison Broad showed vision when she worked to get this school set up, the first in the South Island, one of only two in New Zealand, so that girls whose school days were terminated by pregnancy and childbirth were not abandoned, not left behind in the career stakes, not dubbed solo mothers and not left to fend for themselves.

Meanwhile, city woman Dot Wilson was this week honoured in Wellington with the first life membership of the National Disabled Persons Assembly for whose aims of easy access for the disabled she has worked long and hard.

‘‘And we are still working to ensure young people with a disability can gain the access that is equality,’’ she said.