As the cost of living continues to rise and Kiwis across the country are still suffering the impacts of COVID-19, one charity is on a mission to help keep thousands of kids warm this winter.
Local charity The Kindness Collective aims to spread kindness by making it easier for children and whānau to access life's necessities, from everyday essentials to moments of joy. If your whānau is struggling to pay the bills each week, then events and important moments like birthdays, Christmas and experiences can sometimes be unattainable.
As the cold winter season approaches, many families are preparing for frosty nights by stocking up on warm blankets, heaters and fleecy pyjamas, but that's not the case for some. The reality is that thousands of families in New Zealand are living in poverty and experiencing financial insecurity.
According to the latest child poverty figures by Child Poverty Action Group, 236,000 Kiwi kids are living in income poverty. This means that one in five children in Aotearoa don't have access to day-to-day necessities, including good quality food, adequate healthcare and warm and dry housing.
Chief executive of The Kindness Collective, Sarah Page, says the charity aims to provide as much support as possible to children and their families.
Having a good night's sleep means that children wake up feeling refreshed and they'll be able to focus more at school, but in order to achieve that, they need to be warm wherever they sleep at night.
What is the PJ Project?
This year The Kindness Collective team and volunteers are running a winter campaign called the PJ Project, which aims to make families' lives a little bit easier by providing children with pyjamas so they are able to stay warm all night long.
"By providing over 5000 kids with their own pair of warm winter pyjamas, we are hoping to help whānau have one less thing to worry about this winter. Parents are working hard to keep roofs over their children's heads, feed them, and clothe them and with the living costs increasing, it's becoming harder to make ends meet," says Page.
"We constantly hear stories of how families are making tough decisions every week about how to provide for their families. One story in particular stays in my mind. One whānau whom we supported with food had 14 family members living in a three-bedroom house, with 11 of them isolating and sick with COVID.
"The adults couldn't work (these were the days of longer isolating periods where everyone had to stay at home) and because of situations like these, it's easy to fall behind on bills when you're already living paycheck to paycheck."
The charity hopes to add to the conversation around why the initiative is needed in the first place. Page believes we need to keep challenging the narrative about how we discuss the working poor in New Zealand.
Many parents are faced with extremely difficult choices each week, deciding between paying rent, buying food and now with winter on the way, turning the heater on and buying items to keep their tamariki warm. The charity believes that Kiwis need to keep challenging the way we think about poverty, and help whānau who are working hard to support their families, but are struggling due to the effects of COVID-19, isolation, increased poverty and higher living costs.
"We have many services that share stories of how children are sharing beds, mattresses and space on the floor", Page tells Newshub. "We know that a pair of PJs will not lift these children out of poverty, but we hope it helps their whānau have one less thing to worry about that week".
How you can get involved
A pair of pyjamas might seem small, but The Kindness Collective believes small actions by a lot of people equals big change.
"We realise that donating PJs is not going to change that over 200,000 children are living in some form of poverty in Aotearoa, but it means the children that receive PJs can be a little bit warmer at night, even just for a while and that's the very least we can do."
Getting involved in the PJ Project is a simple way for Kiwis to give back to help provide warmth for children in their community. You can drop off new winter pyjamas to any Armstrong’s dealership and to any of the drop off points, by donating, or collecting pyjamas at your school, workplace, or community until July 31.
This article was created for The Kindness Collective.
