Again this year, I can say we are seeing the longest queues the City Mission has ever seen and that we will hand out the highest number of food parcels given to families. A third of the people visiting us this year are first-time food bank users.
These bleak records demonstrate our failure as a society on so many levels. In this land of plenty, many children are being brought up in extremely poor households. Families are living in cars and overcrowded conditions. For too many, life is a desperate, day-to-day struggle.
The mission does what it can to help. We raise the issues of child poverty and homelessness and tell the stories of the poor. We take action to alleviate the misery of the lives of people seeking our help as they struggle to pay high rents, keep the electricity on, pay for transport to get to work, and feed and clothe their children.
Ultimately though, we are a small cog in a system in which overstretched charities try to address the effects of the much greater problems of low wages, poor housing, and inadequate benefits for those who are not in work.
We are humbled daily by the resilience of our clients. We see people hold things together in the face of being treated badly and denied basic services to which they are entitled. We see their gratitude for whatever small difference we can make to lighten the load of worries they carry. We see their generosity to each other.
Their resilience has strengthened my own as I have gone out each day to ask people for money and food.
My own experience of growing up in poverty is what lies behind my commitment to this work.
Even though I grew up in a time of plenty, mine was not a family that thrived. What made a difference for me was the generosity of people who looked past the problems, saw a child in need, and took action.
I am profoundly grateful for the strength of the small community where neighbours cared enough to welcome me into their homes and lives. They opened windows to new possibilities.
I am grateful for the teachers who persevered with keeping me in education, despite my apathetic attitude.
I am grateful to the couples who stood by me during my turbulent and wilful teenage years.
I am grateful to my husband for understanding the effects of childhood trauma and through his actions demonstrating a non-violent and caring relationship.
I have been given so much, and it has been a privilege to give back, to work alongside people who want to make a difference, and with people who battle on courageously in trying circumstances.
On Christmas Day, at our Mission Christmas lunch, we will celebrate together and renew our hope for the year ahead.
Dame Diane Robertson DNZM is retiring as Auckland City Missioner.
