Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Julie Chapman: KidsCan Chief Executive on the record number of school-aged children needing help from the organisation

Transcript

Julie Chapman: KidsCan Chief Executive on the record number of school-aged children needing help from the organisation · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Because the number of kids needing food and clothing from
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Kids Can has reached a record. More than ten thousand
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: students from two hundred and sixty schools across the country
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: are on the charity's wait list. It is the longest
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: since they're founding in two thousand and five. Kids Can
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Chief executive Julie Chapman is with me this morning. Julie,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: good morning, Good morning, Ryan. Good to have you on
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: the show. You're seeing quite a stark change. I mean,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: those are the numbers, but you're seeing a change in
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: the poverty line. It's shifting.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And what we're finding is that more and more
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: of the schools that are applying to us in middle
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: income areas, So that cost of living and everything that's
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: sort of going on right now is starting to bite
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: in those areas, and families that were just getting by
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: are now the ones that are actually needing help for
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: their children.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: What are they needing help with.
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: Gosh, it's just a real basics. So it's food. You know,
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: a lot of schools are reporting to us that you know,
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: children are going home to nothing to eat, so sometimes
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: you know, at school is the only time they're getting something.
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: You know, they're delaying replacing uniforms, pairs of shoes. You know,
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: shoes are being held together with duct tape. You know,
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: it's taking longer for people to be able to afford
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: those things that their kids really need to be able
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: to get on with learning.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: How long is your you know, in terms of not
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: numbers the wait list, but how long are people on
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: the wait list? You know, how long do people have
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: to wait to get those things?
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so at this time last year, we had over
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: one hundred schools waiting, and now there's one hundred and
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: fifty more of those schools and early childhood centers.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: And I guess the real child one for us is
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: being able to get the funding to be able to
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: take them off the waitlist, because when we do that,
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: we also want to make sure that you know, we're
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: not taking them off for a short time. We're able
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: to support them for as long as then as they
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: need it.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: I know you guys have partners that you work with
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: and stuff like that, but you'll obviously be doing an appeal.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: Can you let people know about that, Julie.
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Look, winters the toughest time for kids, especially the
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: ones that we support. So we've launched an urgent appeal
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: asking people to sign up to support a child for
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: thirty dollars a month or just donate what they can.
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: And our goal with this is to get as many
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: kids on that waiting list off as possible so they
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: can have what they need to get to school and learn.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: How do people help? What's the website, Julie.
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: They can go to KidsCan dot org dot nz and
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: have a lot there all the ways that they can
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: help and lock also so if you're not able to donate,
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: just bread the words. You know, it's really important that
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: we support the education of all children in New Zealand
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: and they really, you know, the kids that are waiting
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: really need that support right now.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: Keep up the good work, Julie, Thank you for your time.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: Julie Chapman, the CEO, chief executive at kids Can. They
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: do brilliant work. And for more from News Talks B listen.
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: Live on air or online and keep
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: Our shows with you wherever you go with our podcasts
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: on iHeartRadio