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Abigail Dougherty
August and Cherie Prescott became temporary caregivers for Oranga Tamariki a little over a year ago. The number of children cared for by the state has peaked at 6,100. They are supported by 3,800 caregivers, and Oranga Tamariki is looking for others.
While the foster care system in America has received an influx of children whose lives have been disrupted by the Trump administration in New Zealand, things do not seem to be going much better than the number of children in foster care. Decades ago, writes Harrison Christian.
August Prescott received the call from Oranga Tamariki a few months ago: "Do you have the capacity for two girls?"
Around 8:30 that night, a baby and his little sister arrived at his Auckland home with everything in tow: cot, booster seats, strollers and clothes. It took a team of four social workers in three cars to deliver them.
The baby had a broken arm. August and his wife, Cherie, were resting from the caregiving, but hearing about the injury on the phone had been the deciding factor for them.
Now, they had two new children to put to bed. And the social workers ended up staying at night too, to make sure the children were settled.
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Oranga Tamariki was created to replace the child, youth and family checkered agency l & # 39; last year. In March, more than 6250 children were in state custody for care and protection, and 250 for reasons of youth justice – a historic record, close to the numbers seen in the early 1980s.
ABIGAIL DOUGHERTY / STUFF
A toddler and his little sister arrived at the Prescotts' house while Oranga Tamariki was looking for a more permanent home.
Since its inception, the new ministry is seeking more caregivers, but will not be able to determine the number. He increased his ranks from 150 to 3800 last year; More than half of them take care of children from their extended whanau
ROLL WITH TELEPHONE CALLS
August and Cherie were emergency caregivers for the ministry for a little over a year. Until now, they have looked after seven children.
The shortest stay at their home in Henderson was two weeks, the longest was eight months. You never know how long you will have a child, or where they will end up.
Prescotts must be flexible and ride with phone calls. Children are brought to them on short notice due to serious concerns for their safety. While the ministry is working to make other arrangements, they have nowhere to go.
Some of the children continued to live with their extended whanau (where the ministry is looking for placement first). During this time, only one child returned to their biological parents, and the rest was placed with permanent adoptive parents.
This is a bittersweet separation with a child whose first crawl, walk, or baby teeth he could see.
"I am sad that they leave because we love them wholeheartedly, but I am really happy for them, because that is what they need, they need to". a permanent home, or to return to their family at the right time. "
ABIGAIL DOUGHERTY / STUFF
August and Cherie Prescott opened their home in West Auckland to children in distress a little over a year ago, and since then they have taken care of seven children
Girls see their biological parents once every two weeks Oranga Tamariki organizes a driver to pick them up and take them to a neutral place, such as a library Parents do not know who the Prescotts are where they live.
"We are happy to share details as a married couple with two x kids, "says August," but certainly not our names or anything like that.
August and Cherie have two children: a 14-year-old girl and an 8-year-old boy. Caring for children in childbirth is a bit of a backtracking, says August, but they prefer to look after children under five, which is only made possible by the will of their children to muck in.
The girls have switched to the routine of their new home. The baby's arm healed. She remembers the night she came out of the darkness at the door of the Prescotts, her only bearings, the presence of her little sister and their few belongings? She can not tell us how she came to such a profound upheaval; she knows only a handful of words.
During the day, the couple works full time in the banking sector, while the girls go to daycare, which is paid by the ministry.
A caregiver for a child aged 0 to 4 receives a weekly care allowance of $ 170, paid every two weeks. This figure was the subject of an increase of $ 20 earlier this month, as part of the Government Families program. There is also a monthly clothing rate of $ 80 and a $ 85 birthday and Christmas allowance.
The month of August says that it's enough to cover the board and that it's helpful when a child arrives with only clothes on their backs. a little over a year ago, temporary caregivers for Oranga Tamariki, including these two … "title =" "src =" https://resources.stuff.co.nz/content/dam /images/1/q/m/j/0/j/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620×349.1qk6lu.png/1530935588111.jpg "class =" photoborder "/>
DOUGHERTY / STUFF ABIGAIL
August and Cherie Prescott became temporary caregivers for Oranga Tamariki a little over a year ago, including these two daughters. The baby came to their house with a broken arm.
"We probably did the department store four times, where we just bought gold and we started from nothing."
In May, the ministry launched a national support and recruitment team for caregivers. facilitates the application process, easing the burden of social workers.
Team leader Janet Smart says that about sixty people have expressed interest in signing up within the first two weeks of its operation. Most of them were between 20 and 30 years old.
All candidates go through an extensive screening process, character references and police checks.
Smart says that they want more candidates, but there is no "magic number".
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" THINGS CAN ONLY BETTER "
While Prescotts enjoy the benefits and support of the current foster care system, Lewis and Wanda Messam remember one epoch where costs were not covered and social workers were overworked.
Messams welcomed 300 children for more than three decades in Rotorua. In addition to three children and five adoptive children,
Liam Messam, one of the stars of the All Blacks and Chiefs, said that they gave her a second chance to live. to be New Zealanders of the year.
"I come from a big family, I'm adopted, and there were always children coming in and out
" It was some something we were all used to. "
" They gave us another chance in life and they open their hearts to everyone. They should be New Zealanders of the year.
TOM LEE / STUFF
Lewis Messam and his wife Wanda were adoptive parents of more than 300 children
Speaking of his new base in Hamilton, Lewis recalls the days leading up to the advent of Child , Youth and Family – at the time, it was the Department of Social Welfare, which the department had recommended to adopt.
The first advice they received was with him: when you are given a baby that is not yours, it will smell different, it's like the smell that you take in someone else's house; Lewis remembers it, but it was not enough for him to cover the costs: you would have $ 40 to have a child during the weekend – and that boy would make $ 60 worth of damage.
Lewis believes that the most support ava it is best for caregivers, the better. People who feed children are just not for profit.
He is also pleased with the concept of Oranga Tamariki's new caregiver support team and hopes that it will free social workers to focus on children.
SUPPLIED
Among the children that Lewis and Wanda Messam encouraged, Liam Messam [All Black and Chiefs]
79 years old said that he saw a recurring problem across the various iterations of care of the child. State: social workers who were well intentioned but lacked the time and resources to do effective work.
The big thing that hit them was the workload of these people. Many of them were perfect for the front line, but bogged down in the bureaucracy of the system, writing case reports.
"I think it can only improve," he says. "How can you expect someone to race, doing three things at the same time?" And they did dozens of cases, these people.
"I am a big fan of them, but I understand their problems. At least I think I do it. "
The couple saw it over the years Once, a 13-year-old girl was kidnapped from her home by her uncle and taken to the far north
.] After three months , Lewis received a call from her to say that she was at the Rotorua bus station, and that he could pick her up, she was running away and was coming into town with a spare room. A dollar in his pocket for the public phone The girl stayed with them until she finished high school.
ANDREW CORNAGA / PHOTOSPORTT
All Black and Chief stars, Liam Messam was raised by his adoptive parents, Lewis and Wanda Messam with over 300 other children whom they took in their Rotorua home at over the years.
a year and a half ago, after passing from teens to babies. feel free to recommend it to others, "but you need to have some ideas in your head."
"Do not think that you are going to heal the world – only one is enough for the moment – or two or three."
BY NUMBERS: TOTAL CHILDREN IN THE CARE OF THE STATE (INCLUDING FOR REASONS OF YOUTH JUSTICE)
1982: 6588 (Population 3,156 million)
1989: 3287
1993: 2654
1994: 2862
2008: 4522
2018: 6500 (Population 4,749 Million)
TOM LEE / STUFF
Lewis Messam welcomes the concept of Oranga Tamariki's new caregiver support team and hopes it will free social workers to focus on children [19659074] – Sunday Star Times
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