Teen crimes plummet
Police once knocked on Monica Kanawa’s door daily – now they haven’t had to for 18 months.
The visits used to inform the Huntly solo mother of seven about her son Victor’s latest antics, often burglaries.
‘‘He was nearly involved in hitting an old man during a burglary, pinching money for his wants, not his needs, because he wanted marijuana,’’ Kanawa says.
Then they got involved with the Oranga Rangatahi programme, run by Oranga Tamariki.
It led to a switch in both Victor, and Kanawa, and their relationship has grown.
The programme, which has been running since 2016, has also contributed to a 68 per cent drop in offending rates for those Huntly children involved in the programme.
Kanawa’s partner died in 2014 leaving her to raise her three youngest children.
As well as Victor, 15, she also has another son, 13, and a daughter, 9, who has cerebral palsy.
‘‘That is where all my attention was going – to help her out. So my son cut me out and started to play up. It wasn’t until someone sat me down and said, it’s not all about her.’’
While her daughter needed her, Victor was in ‘‘mamae [pain] and he’s got something that he wants off his chest’’.
The Oranga Rangatahi programme, which is helping 22 children in the area, often involves taking children and their parents away for the weekend or during school holidays. It was on one of these trips that Kanawa and her son were able to reconnect and since then their relationship has been improving.
She now trusts him when she gives him money. He will come back with clothes and food and not marijuana.
Victor is now talking about finding a job in graphics and helping his mum with chores. But it’s not just the children that have to change – it’s a programme that makes mothers look at themselves as well.
A group of mothers will meet once a week to talk things over.
‘‘At the moment they are saying, ‘I don’t want [the kids] they’re naughty’, ‘I don’t want them anymore and I don’t want to listen to them’.
‘‘And I said, if only she heard one voice instead of all her kids.’’
Now Kanawa is helping those other mums to realise that they need to hear that ‘‘naughty’’ child’s voice too, away from their other children.
‘‘We suggest they have time out with the one child and they see the results when they listen.’’
Youth worker Leon Wharekura is one of the driving forces behind the successful programme – but he’s quick to point out that it’s a collaboration with iwi social services, the police, Huntly College and the Waikato DHB.
‘‘This is not a one-man waka rowing up the river – this is passionate, homegrown people who are all invested in doing the good work,’’ Wharekura said.
He said each of the 22 kids in the programme were dealing with a variety of issues.
‘‘Those who are dealing with dysfunction, hurt kids who are trying to express themselves, dealing with behavioural issues, missing fathers, mama’s with broken dreams and experimental opportunist kids, entitled kids – I want it, I will go and steal it, hormones and sexual identity, disconnection from marae, hapu, and iwi,’’ Wharekura said.
He knows the kids are looking for consistency, stability, boundaries and they just want love.
‘‘If they can’t have those fundamental human rights, or they are unaccustomed to those basic human rights, then they need people like us who understand, listen, who support, who will pick the phone up at 1am if you get the call.’’
Wharekura said it also comes down to how the kids are spoken to.
‘‘It’s how we respect these kids, how we respect their wider whanau – because it’s never just the kid.
‘‘We’ve got to look broader and look into the dynamic of the home – and awhi [embrace] that along as well.
‘‘We are never just about the kids, we are about the wha¯ nau.
‘‘It won’t happen overnight, we are all a work in progress – the rewards for us is ‘thank you matua I had a good day’ when you drop them back at home,’’ Wharekura said.
Sergeant John Stapleford of Huntly’s neighbourhood police team agrees the programme has worked and they will be supporting it again in 2020.
‘‘I have two constables who work really closely with Oranga Tamariki on that programme and the youths had been high offenders in the area and for about 10 months while they were on that programme there was no offending by them,’’ Stapleford said.
‘‘It’s been quite an incredible journey for us – going through the youth and building that relationship through the youth seems to be the way to go,’’ Stapleford said.
He admits that to make the programme work the police have got to change their attitude.
‘‘To make it work you have to get police officers prepared to change and build a relationship with the kids rather than react to their behaviour.’’
Stapleford would like to get a youth centre for Huntly.
‘‘I am desperately trying to get things there in Huntly for kids to do – so that there are things to do other than commit crime.’’
Oranga Tamariki is looking at extending the programme into O¯ po¯ tiki and Horowhenua.