Foster Hope gets funding boost from Auckland Airport

Louise Burnie, chairwoman of Foster Hope. Photo / Greg Bowker

The Herald is profiling 12 charities awarded $12,000 each from Auckland Airport’s Twelve Days of Christmas campaign. Each grant is made up of $10,000 donated by generous travellers who placed unwanted currency into money boxes dotted around the airport’s terminals in 2023, and as a cherry on top, Auckland Airport has gifted each charity an additional $2000.

For many kids going into foster care, leaving home is a traumatic experience. And when they arrive at their new placement, it’s often with little more than the clothes they are wearing.

The Foster Hope Charitable Trust has set about helping to smooth that difficult transition in a practical way, providing backpacks or duffel bags of personal items to accompany the children as they move into their new place of care.

Packed with toiletries, a cuddly toy, books, activity items and underwear – the bags offer things to get them through the first few days and bring a little bit of hope during what can be a stressful time.

“Our mission is to show children in care that their community cares about them,” says Foster Hope chairwoman and Auckland co-ordinator Louise Burnie.

“From the stories we hear, it’s sometimes the first time these kids have been given anything. They may have never owned their own toothbrush before. For younger kids, we put some extra toys in the pack so they have something they can bring to the table in their new family, particularly if they will be among other children, so they have something that’s theirs – not borrowed from someone else,” she says.

“You have no idea the impact some of these things, even just a toothbrush of their own, can have. It’s a touchpoint that there is a whole community out there that cares about them and that they haven’t been forgotten.”

Foster Hope has used the money to buy gifts for children ranging for teddy bears, puzzles to towels and toiletries. Photo / Greg Bowker

Foster Hope also puts together ‘flat packs’ for teenagers ageing out of foster care and into their first flat. The tubs include household items to help with their first flatting experience such as cutlery, crockery, cleaning products.

“It’s the sort of thing you’d send your kids off with when they go flatting. But if you are fostering a lot of kids, you run out of stuff to keep handing out when they leave your house, and these are things that can help top them up.”

The backpacks are put together by volunteers and given out by social workers all year round.

Foster Hope is one of 12 charities being gifted $10,000 for work in South Auckland communities. This is funded from the donations of generous travellers who placed their unwanted foreign currency into moneyboxes dotted around the terminals this year. As a cherry on the top, Auckland Airport has gifted an extra $2000 per grant.

Auckland Airport’s chief corporate services officer Melanie Dooney says Christmas is a busy time for agencies and foster children transitioning into care, and the $12,000 grant will help get more bags ready for all suburbs across South Auckland.

“We are so pleased to be able to help Foster Hope get more packs ready to bring a little hope into what is a very stressful time in these children’s lives,” Dooney says.

Burnie says the grant will also support Foster Hope’s gift drive within South Auckland to ensure kids in foster care have something special under the Christmas tree just for them.

“We try and go for things that are family-related so everyone can join in and have fun together such as volleyball sets or basketballs,” she says. “We are really thankful for the grant money and the way this will help make Christmas special for these kids.”

Foster Hope started with teddy bears and has evolved into overnight bags, supplied from eight branches around the country. These are packed by volunteers and are given out by social workers, partnering with 30 social work agencies across Auckland alone.

“We are a grassroots charity. We rent a few storage facilities, but 95 per cent of what we get in donations goes into product or to sponsoring kids to a summer camp. The money ends up where it’s needed,” Burnie says.