Fatherless boys aided by buddies

has become

a WILLIE APIATA, VC, again.

Apiata, who turns 42 tomorrow, was in Auckland last night, telling his story of growing up without a father, alongside Prime Minister John Key, who also grew up fatherless.

They were speaking at the launch of the Big Buddy Foundation, which aims to create a fund to support the Big Buddy programme, established in 1997, which has given male mentors to 538 boys without fathers.

Apiata, who won the Victoria Cross in 2007 for bravery in Afghanistan, remains a member of the Special Air Service reserve force. After he spoke, the audience was told that Apiata had very recently become a father again. His first child, a son, is aged about 11.

‘‘As a young boy myself, coming from a separated family and not having a father in my life, I was lucky enough to live in a small community where there were male role models,’’ Apiata told the audience.

‘‘A man in my life finished off my training to become a man.’’

He hailed the Big Buddy programme, saying it was needed so that boys could grow to men.

Apiata and Key were left in awe by 17-yearold Taraia Whatuira-Henderson of Waiheke Island, who lost his father to suicide when he was 10 but, with his younger brother, had been mentored by the programme.

Apiata hailed Whatuira-Henderson for speaking proudly and honestly. He pointed to the youth’s mother, who was with him.

‘‘That is his hero in his life, she has been there every day, every minute of his life, supporting through his own journey, as my mother did for me and as she does to this day,’’ Apiata said.

‘‘Even though I am 42 coming up, I always be my mother’s little boy.’’

Key said his father died when he was 6 and he had no memory of him. ‘‘I have always felt I had a full and rounded life, my mother was fantastic.’’

He told the audience that growing up without a father had left him as one of the world’s least practical people. ‘‘I am incredibly impractical . . . I cannot do stuff.’’

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