Young Kiwis spared hard work foreign kids do

Glenfield Intermediate pupils Bryce Milham (left), Crystal Merrilees, J.V. Enriquez, Monica Sayani, Stanley Liu and Jessica Clough. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Childhood in New Zealand means not having to work, according to a survey of children around the world by the aid agency Child Fund.

The survey found that a quarter of the children in 30 developing countries where Child Fund operates have to work at least half of every day, often at backbreaking tasks such as fetching water or firewood.

Even across the Tasman, nine of the 100 10- to-12-year-old Australian children surveyed said they worked an average of at least half of every day.

In New Zealand, only one in 100 in the same age group worked as much - and that was probably mainly at the weekends. Two-thirds of the Kiwi kids worked less than an hour a day, compared with 55 per cent of Australians and only 31 per cent in the poorer countries.

India-born Monica Sayani, 12, a Glenfield Intermediate student who was one of the 100 Kiwi children surveyed, counts herself fortunate to have no work to do apart from usually less than an hour's gardening at weekends.

"I used to do a paper run with my sister but we moved," she said.

"I'm sorry because some people in the world end up working all day, even kids, like child labour. We are lucky we don't have to work."

Child Fund, a US-based charity which links donors in rich countries to sponsored children in poor countries but actually gives the money to each child's community, says its first-ever survey of almost 3000 children in its 30 recipient nations found "a real commonality" across Africa, Asia and Latin America.

"The real story is that these kids around the world really value education," said Child Fund NZ chief executive Paul Brown.

All the children were asked an open-ended question, "If you were president of your country, what would you do?" More than half (57 per cent) of the children in poor countries said they would improve education.

In New Zealand, only 25 per cent mentioned education and the most popular suggestion was to provide more food (33 per cent).

Asked, "What do you need most in your daily life?" food was again the most popular pick in New Zealand (56 per cent), but in the poorer countries slightly more chose education (34 per cent) than food (33 per cent).

"It's not that Kiwi kids don't value education, it's just so ingrained that it's taken as the norm here," Mr Brown said.

In fact, judging by six Glenfield students who explained their answers to the Herald, the New Zealand children were simply stating the obvious - that food and water are the most basic essentials of daily life.

"Food, water and a home," suggested Bryce Milham, 12. All the students said they had enough themselves but were thinking of what people needed in general.

Only one of the six Glenfield students has a paid job - Stanley Liu, 13, works after school on Fridays and all day on Saturdays in his parents' takeaway shop.

Jessica Clough, 13, and J.V. Enriquez, 12, reckon they work an average of a bit more than an hour a day on housework and, in J.V.'s case, looking after his 6-year-old sister after school until his dad gets home.

But Monica, Bryce and Crystal Merrilees, 12, all estimate that they average less than an hour a day on chores or any kind of work other than schoolwork, which was excluded by the question.

A Labour Department report published in March found that around a fifth of New Zealand 11-year-olds (mainly boys) are in regular part-time paid work, rising to more than half by age 16 when girls are slightly more likely to work than boys.

The 100 Kiwi kids in the Child Fund survey were from Red Beach School near Orewa, Red Hill Primary School at Papakura, Ohakune Primary School and Hamilton's private Southwell School, as well as from Glenfield.

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