Speaking to Liam Dann on Money Talks, she says that some of the empathy for the suffering of those – including pets – impacted by violent relationships comes from her own experience of a bad relationship in her 20s.
“It was weird because I had already been working for Women’s Refuge. When I first left school, it was one of the jobs I had. And, you think, oh, that will never happen to me.”
“I think it’s probably shaped my understanding of what victims of family violence go through and all of the kind of psychological things that happen ... having my own personal experience with that when I was in my early 20s.
“I wouldn’t say it affects me now. I think it’s given me more empathy, in my work at KidsCan, but certainly in my role at Pet Refuge as well.”
There’s no question she loves animals.
She has “13 cats, seven goats, two dogs, 18 chickens” and “the list goes on”, she says.
“The two dogs are rescue dogs. The 13 cats are rescue cats, and then there’s a pet turkey, a sparrow that was rescued, a budgie, and an 800kg steer called Humphrey Moat.”
When she left school, Chapman initially wanted to be a police officer, although she ended up working in office supplies and quickly fell into working for charity organisations.
Eventually, she began to see a need in areas she didn’t feel were being catered to by existing charities.
“I really wanted to do something that addressed a big social issue,” she says.
She had heard through talking to teachers and media reports, that there were children who wouldn’t start the new school year because they didn’t have shoes or the right clothes.
“There were kids who were missing out. So I did a really unsophisticated survey out to 80 schools and the results of that were just quite overwhelming.”
Chapman says the point of KidsCan for her is providing education and a pathway out of hardship and poverty.
Looking back on the past 20 years, Chapman says she is proud of building a sustainable organisation.
“We’ve been able to work with businesses, communities, and Government to make sure that kids have what they need,” she says.
“I guess what I’m not proud of, though, is that if you go back to when we first started, we were supporting children in 40 schools.”
“Never could I have imagined that it would grow to where we are now, which is supporting children in over 1000 schools and early childhood centres. That just tells you about the state of poverty.”
- Those who want to help out can visit the Pet Refuge website to sign up to the Safe Beds for Pets programme $25 a month. Or visit the KidsCan website to help provide food, clothing, shoes and basic health products to children in schools or early childhood centres for $30 a month.
Listen to the full episode to hear more from Dame Julie Chapman.
Money Talks is a podcast run by the NZ Herald. It isn’t about personal finance and isn’t about economics - it’s just well-known New Zealanders talking about money and sharing some stories about the impact it’s had on their lives and how it has shaped them.
The series is hosted by Liam Dann, business editor-at-large for the Herald. He is a senior writer and columnist, and also presents and produces videos and podcasts. He joined the Herald in 2003.
Money Talks is available on iHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
