Blog

March to Save our Children Saturday 26 June 2021 Aotea Square Auckland Central to TVNZ I am Child Advocacy NZ. I am Adriana van Altvorst I stand not as me but as WE Children and whanau have been harmed from those who have been paid by US through our taxes to protect our children. Those with the power to STOP the harm or to ADDRESS that harm. They Know, they have known, they know now BUT still they do not hear our cries for things to change Who are they? Oranga Tamariki Ministry of Education...

Bad things happen to GOOD people I stood behind Sam because I support him You need to as well Sam's story is so unbelievable that you may think it did not happen I can say that I have seen the evidence It is all true It shows how Oranga Tamariki social workers inaccurately labeled Sam based on his appearance and shared that inaccurate information with other agencies to split his family apart while he and his partner were facing the imminent death of their son, Titaha This was an abuse of...

Silence divides us Speaking up unites us By speaking up By telling our stories We are seen and heard By listening we discover we are not alone The media has a responsibility to report the truth To give people the opportunity to speak up So that the public is informed Sadly, many of our major media providers in NZ do not report many stories of child abuse and harm to our children and harm done to parents who protect their children and to advocates fighting to address the harm done to our...

An article by Brianna Mcilraith published on stuff.co.nz on June 25, 2021, discusses how a Waitara woman, who has a history of trauma, is bringing free mental health classes to her community that address childhood trauma. For more, read the full article using this link .

A new peer-reviewed publication featured in the July 2021 Volume 117 of the Journal of Child Abuse & Neglect confirms the high prevalence of ACEs in New Zealand across all sociodemographic groups, the disproportionate prevalence of ACEs among individuals who identified as Māori, and the relationship between ACEs and IPV in adulthood. This publication, entitled "ACEs in New Zealand and Subsequent Victimization in Adulthood..." by Fanslow et al., supports the need to address ACEs in New...

Lake Alice Child and Adolescent Unit public hearing – 14 to 30 June in Auckland The Lake Alice Child and Adolescent Unit public hearing will be in Auckland at Level 2, 414 Khyber Pass Road, Newmarket, Auckland (entrance from Kingdon st) from 14-30 June. The hearing will focus on evidence about abuse of children and young people in the care of the Child and Adolescent Unit at Lake Alice psychiatric hospital in the 1970s. We will investigate what happened, and why it happened. We are also...

NZ Study - School Readiness, Adversities in Childhood Experience and Access to Government Services A Scoping Study on Potential Protective Factors December 2020 This report is based on the NZ context. It is interesting because Oranga Tamariki, Ministry for Children and the Ministry of Social Development (aka MSD) were involved. This means that both Oranga Tamariki and MSD know about the experiences of our people beyond anecdotal observations. They have in fact done the research. They have...

New Zealand's Human Rights system is bound byTe Tiriti o Waitangi. Te Tiriti o Waitangi was signed on 6 February 1840 by the Crown and Maori. It is legally binding and acknowledged internationally as a constitutional document. Many do not know about He Whakaputanga o te Rangitiratanga o Nu Tireni, our Declaration of Independence which was signed five years earlier by more Maori on 28 October 1835. He Whakaputanga o te Rangitiratanga o Nu Tirene is weaved into Te Tiriti o Waitangi and is...

The scientific evidence is clear and growing: racism imposes unique and substantial stressors on the daily lives of families raising young children of color. Understanding how these stressors affect child health and development provides a compelling framework for new ideas about how communities, policies, programs, and funding streams might confront and dismantle these inequities and build a stronger future for us all. This new brief discusses how racism creates conditions that harm the...

I have PTSD. It is an invisible disability. It took me years to accept that I had mental health issues and it took longer for me to accept that I was a person with a disability. I have faced layers of trauma from what others have done to me. Those "others" included those who had a responsibility to protect me. They were not just people I loved but people who held positions of power and they were paid and employed by the NZ government to protect me. They did not They effectively used their...

For social workers in NZ ~ cost $90 A one day Live-Streamed event to explore social work practice with Māori and Pasifika to contribute to your Continuing Professional Development. Speakers Hinewirangi Kohu-Morgan - Keynote Address Eugene Ryder - Positive Role Modelling Dr. Analosa Veukiso-Ulugia - ‘Le Va Fealoa’i’: Partnering and collaborating with, and for, Pacific communities in Aotearoa New Zealand Jonelle McNeill & Agnes Kapisi-Sevi - Paiheretanga: Changing the narrative around...