New Zealand has one of the worst rates of child abuse and neglect in the developed world. Please make a gift to give kiwi kids like Jessie the support they need to transform their futures.

“Jessie* is only six years old, but I can already see hope for her. Hope that she’ll stay in school and have a different life to her mum.”

Right now our family support service team is doing everything we can to help families who desperately need it. We’re giving people who are at risk of abusing or neglecting their children the support they need to become better parents. We’re trying to help them give their children a decent start in life.

But without your help we just can’t do enough. And we can’t do it soon enough.

It’s a simple supply and demand issue. We’ve already helped thousands of Kiwi families but our resources are already stretched and I know many more families will need us in the coming months.

Please help me meet this urgent demand for our family support service and reach out to more vulnerable children by making a gift today.

I really hope you’ll be able to support us today because without you, children like Jessie may never get the help and support they desperately need.

Melissa is one of our amazing Barnardos family support social workers, and she started working with Jessie and her mum, Beth*, almost a year ago. Beth has many complicated problems that make it hard for her to be the mum she wants to be to Jessie and her other two kids. As Melissa told me:

“Beth is in her early 30s, although she looks older. Tired. She has a lot of health problems that have a huge impact on her parenting, so just getting out of bed to get Jessie off to school was a real struggle.

And when Jessie did get to school, she’d often be unwashed, in a dirty uniform, with unbrushed hair. Kids pick up on things like this, so Jessie also had to cope with constant taunts from other children. Yet there’s lots of love between Jessie and Beth. Lots of hugs, lots of kisses. Beth wanted to be a better mum to her kids – she just didn’t know how to do it and found the situation overwhelming.”

I don’t think I’ve ever met a parent who doesn’t want the best for their child. But if they grew up without a secure and supportive family environment – as Beth did – then their chances of being able to create this for their own children are fairly small.

Yet if they can’t, the impact on their children can be devastating. Without a stable home environment, kids like Jessie are far more likely to suffer health problems, drop out of school, struggle to find work, become young offenders, drug addicts and worse. And if this happens, they’ll lose their chance to break the cycle of poverty, abuse and neglect.

That’s why giving people like Beth the support they need to be great parents really does transform the lives of children like Jessie.

“We helped Beth apply for and get her own rental house instead of living in cramped conditions with her mother. This was a huge thing, because it gave the family their own home. And we’ve been supporting her with the parenting side of things, such as getting Jessie to school on time, every day.

Now Beth knows what she needs to do, it’s given her a whole new attitude. She wants to get things sorted for her children, to be the mum she wants to be. But the biggest thing is that I can now see Jessie’s hope for herself and that’s just wonderful.”

This is the amazing impact you will have on a child’s life by supporting our family support service. Please make a gift to help more vulnerable kiwi kids like Jessie, give them the happy childhoods and bright futures they deserve and donate today.

I wish you and your family a Happy New Year.



Murray Edridge
Chief Executive, Barnardos New Zealand