Parents help families tackle social problems

Manurewa parents have formed a charitable trust to help families tackle the social problems that have led to children going to school hungry.

From a prefabricated hut provided by a parent at decile 2 Leabank School, the Parents of Schools in Manurewa (POSM) Trust offers parents courses in life skills such as hygiene, nutrition, cooking, budgeting and gardening, as well as sports and cultural programmes and basic literacy and numeracy.

"We are offering programmes, along with other organisations, to help upskill the parents," said chairwoman Angela Opai, a dynamic social worker who brushes aside questions about the root causes of the district's poverty.

Leabank principal Rex Maddren says it is a struggle to educate children in a transient community where about half the families leave each year.

"Quite a significant number are now leaving New Zealand, going to Aussie. It used to be shifting to other parts of South Auckland, now they are just upping sticks and going."

Further out along Weymouth Rd at Finlayson Park School, principal Shirley Maihi says that of the 110 children who left to go to intermediate at the end of Year 6 last year, only six had been at the school since Year 1.

Ms Opai has often had to advocate for families in court or with Child, Youth and Family. She is starting a course for parents on the law with a lawyer from the Manukau Community Law Centre.

But she also visits families in their homes and aims to provide a "wraparound" service covering all the issues that lead to problems such as offending or hungry children. She has helped plant vegetables in six hothouses beside the school swimming pool, using the produce for sandwiches and soup for children who come to school without lunch.

She has brought in horticulturists from Manukau Institute of Technology to run gardening courses, and is negotiating with the Ministry of Social Development to train parents to act as budgeters at each school in the district.

"Another aspect is to get the parents involved in the kids' learning, so we've devised some programmes to bring the parents out to come and help. A lot of them are willing to get out of the house, and in return we give back to them," she said.

"The whole philosophy is to give people in need a hand up, not a handout. It's just getting them above a level where they can fare a little bit better in society."

* POSM, ph (09) 267 6939.