School sole-searching helps barefoot kids in frosty weather

Barefoot pupils at Randwick Park School were given shoes to help them through winter. Picture / Glenn Jeffrey

Twenty Manurewa schoolchildren went home with new shoes last night after coming to school barefooted through the morning frost.

Felicity Oberlin-Brown of Randwick Park School in Manurewa East said some of the 20 shoeless children at her school yesterday morning might have chosen to leave their shoes behind. But some families simply could not afford shoes.

"A lot of them budget to the last cent," she said. "So we have been doing a rattle-round today looking for shoes."

Yesterday morning was the coldest so far this year, with ground temperatures of minus 0.5C at Auckland Airport, minus 5C in Hamilton and minus 6C in Henderson.

Randwick Park, a decile 2 primary school whose roll is 75 per cent Maori and Pacific, is also giving raincoats to 100 of its 800 pupils through new charity KidsCan, launched by All Blacks Doug Howlett and Ali Williams at Weymouth School on Friday.

"There are kids who are not coming to school because they have no coats," Mrs Brown said. "They don't actually come when it's raining."

The school also provides bread, spreads and a toaster in each classroom for hungry children.

KidsCan founder Julie Helson said her trust had raised $160,000 through adidas and Warehouse Stationery to buy 10,000 raincoats at cost price from China. She hopes to distribute them by the end of this year to the country's 310 decile 1 to 3 primary schools.

The trust is now raising money through $2 mystery envelopes and other fundraising campaigns in Warehouse stores to provide healthy breakfasts and vitamins to low-income schools.

Takapuna-based Ms Helson formerly worked for a golfing charity but saw a wider need.

"It came about from me hearing about the plight of children and realising the level of poverty that there is in New Zealand," she said.

"We contacted a cross-section of schools and found out that their three top needs were clothing, food and nutrition and exclusion from sporting activities. We are launching something with Doug Howlett later in the year - a fund to help kids wanting to play rugby and netball who are excluded because they can't afford to buy the uniform or pay the fees."

Finlayson Park School principal Shirley Maihi said her pupils did not come to school barefoot yesterday only because the Auckland City Mission donated new shoes to all 900 pupils of the Manurewa school this term.

"The kids were so excited because for many it was their first new pair of shoes that they had had, " she said.

City Missioner Diane Robertson said the mission was given 1300 pairs of shoes last year by the Customs Department, which seized them from an illegal importer, and by other donors. It received more shoes yesterday and would pass them on to schools that needed them.

"We've had individual donors who donate substantial amounts of jerseys and warm clothing and shoes for kids. We are always looking for that," she said.

Although New Zealand has the world's second-lowest unemployment rate, the mission has collected 4954 food parcels for 70 foodbanks around Auckland in the 11 months to the end of May, compared with 4100 in the entire year to last June.

"When families come for food parcels, we also give out clothing," Ms Robertson said.

"New Zealand has some of the highest disparity rates in the world - a small percentage of kids are left behind in terms of poverty, education, housing and opportunities. The gap is getting bigger and bigger."