Getting rid of child poverty in New Zealand

One of the nationwide radio networks in New Zealand is More FM. Each region has their own station  and broadcasts to their local listeners. However, today all of stations joined up for 13 hours to raise money for KidsCan charity. At the time of writing this they had raised NZ$53,832. KidsCan is a charity which helps eradicate child poverty in New Zealand. This is one of the issues I wrote about yesterday, why should we as a nation fund developing countries when we have children living in poverty on our own front door step?

Well, how can we help our children living below the poverty line?

1. You can donate money to the charity, either in a lump sum or a monthly amount.

2. Hold fund raising events. So, today More FM has their own fundraising day in which they are broadcasting from all over the country while interviewing celebrities. (By the way, I heard the leader of the Opposition of the New Zealand parliament, David Shearer interviewed this morning and he played a guitar and sang a song and I must say that he was very good.

3. Adopt a child. Big call that one. Almost the ultimate in helping out.

4. Donate food and clothing.

5. Make an arrangement with a school to provide breakfast in the morning. If you are really flush with cash, you could do it daily or weekly, monthly or even once a term would be a great way to help the community.

6. Offer to do some education programmes in school. Obviously this doesn't sound like it will solve the problem of the hungry child on the first day but as the saying goes, give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

7. Start some kind of mentor programme. Where with the parent's permission you look after a child maybe once a week. (Obviously there are some difficult moral arguments to this but it could be worth looking at.

8. If you are a property investor with substantial holdings one of those properties could be to a family that is struggling and a significant discount.

9. Offer to help parents in the same way that you are helping the children. This can be in may forms. Whether you sponsor them to up skill or help them with English if it isn't their native language.

10. Offer transportation for children to go to events that they may not be able to go to if they were relying on parents.

These are just some ideas I have thought of which may or may not work, but we never know if we don't try them.

Here is the website for KidsCan. I off to make a donation. I hope that my little gesture will in a small way help with the eradication of child poverty in New Zealand.