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Antwort in : /alt/activism/d Absender : janice@ihug.co.nz (janice) Betreff : NZ Poverty: Walk for Change Datum : Do 25.06.98, 20:02 (erhalten: 26.06.98) Groesse : 6326 Bytes ----------------------------------------------------------------------
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Hikoi of Hope: (Walking for a Change)
WHAT HAPPENED AT THE GENERAL SYNOD
The General Synod (Parliament of the Anglican Church) which met in May listened to many stories of hardship and poverty, and of how things are getting worse. The Anglican-Methodist Family Care Centre in Dunedin recounted how last year their estimate was that they gave out food parcels to 10% of the people who live in Dunedin. Here in Palmerston North our own Anglican-Roman Catholic Agency ACROSS (Anglican-Catholic Social Services) is set up to help 140 clients per month, but the need for help is so enormous that they actually cater for 215 clients, and then have to tell any others that they simply can't help more than they are already helping.
A significant part of the problem faced by our Social Service agencies are the government cuts in funding. People who once might have had their needs met by the Children and Young Person's Service (CYPS) or the Child, Adolescent and Famile Mental Health (CAF) no longer have their needs properly met by CYPS or CAF, because like every other agency funded by government they have been expected to do the same amount of work with less funding. So some of these people are finding their way to ACROSS for help. People who turn up to the hospital counselling services find that there is a three month waiting list there and so turn to ACROSS for help.
This kind of thing does not make newspaper headlines. But the murders committed by people living in the community without any professional support, in spite of the pleas by close relatives that they are sick and need to have medical care, has made headlines. It is stuff we are all familiar with. Multiply this by 100 for the 100 non-sensational cases there are for every case which hits the headlines, where people need help but can't get it, and we get some idea of the gravity of the social climate in NZ at this time. And it is getting worse not > better.
So the leadership of the Anglican church meeting at the General Synod heard these stories and many others. General Synod also had convincing statistical data presented to it. In health, there is an increase in diseases associated with poverty (meningococcal meningitis,Hepatitis B, Rheumatic Fever). Wealth differences: NZ recorded the fastest growing gap between rich and poor for any OECD country in the early 1990's. Studies of poverty in NZ have found around 18% of households, which include 33% of NZ's children, live below the poverty line [poverty was defined as below 60% of the average wage.] In education: total student loan debt at 31/3/98 was over 2 billion dollars, with 25,881 students owing over $20,000 and a further 7,906 students owing over $30,000.
In the light of all of these information General Synod reached the conclusion
" that further reduction of Social Welfare benefits in New Zealand, for invalids, sickness beneficiaries and single parents is unnecessary and cruel. Such reductions will be severely damaging to the health and well-being of beneficiaries and particularly their children. ... This treatment of low income households is not acceptable in a society which plans significant tax cuts for the better off."
Over recent years the Church has passed resolutions, made submissions, sent delegations and signed petitions on these issues. Successive governments have not heeded these, and the church leadership believe that we are seeing the progressive collapse of a caring society.
Therefore the General Synod decided to call for and plan a "Hikoi of Hope" which will march to Parliament are present the following demands: - the creation of real jobs - a public health system which people can trust - benefit and wage levels which move people out of poverty - affordable housing - high-quality, publicly-funded education
WHAT IS BEING PLANNED
Planning has begun. Permission has been gained for a gathering outside Parliament on October 1st. The Hikoi itself will begin at the top of the North Island (Cape Reinga) and at the bottom of the South Island (Bluff) on September 1st. Some [a few] people have indicated their intention to walk the whole way. But it is planned to hold an event in the main centres of population over the Saturdays in September. The date set for Palmerston North is Saturday 26th September. Planning is underway to encourage as many people as possible to be involved in those events, and then for as many as can make it to go to Wellington for the event outside Parliament on Oct. 1st.
IS THIS THE CHURCH GETTING INTO POLITICS?
The intention is not to engage in party politics but to act as a conscience to our politicians asking them very firmly to address social issues of importance from a Christian perspective.
Bishop Hui Vercoe explains the concept of "Hikoi" as: "I don't think our Hikoi is a protest, but a statement of where we are as a Church and the concerns of our people. The concept is a great migration. We seek to rediscover what God calls us to be. The story of Abraham is a Hikoi. The Exodus is a Hikoi. ...
"We must create the environment as being a spiritual journey .... what we need to correct. For us the year 2,000 should be the Year of the Jubilee. After October 1st we are in the mode of preparing for the year 2,000 ... forgiveness of debts, each others sins, the return of stolen land. ...
"We are awakening our nation to the erosion of our community caused by economic policy in which we have become trapped. There needs to be a rediscovery of human values and God values within our lives. The challenge is to communicate that to the rest of the community and the world ... with our brother and sister churches."
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Last Modified: July 1998