Child Poverty Action Group
Enough for All – Child Wellbeing Election Forum
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The Child Wellbeing Election Forum, 30 September, join our event and find out more via Facebook
ENOUGH FOR ALL
Tick 4 Kids, Child Poverty Action Group, Anglican Movement, ActionStation and the Equality Network have come together to host this Election forum event.
Come listen to the political parties answer the demands of people living and working on the frontlines of housing, welfare and tax issues.
The online political forum will go from 6 – 7.30pm.
*If Wellington is at Alert level 1, the event will proceed with limited seats at St Peters on Willis Street and by livestream on Facebook and Twitch. At level 2 only the politicians and those hosting the event will be in person. If we are at level 3 or above, everyone will be online.
Our very own UCAN member Stacey Ryan is on the program, challenging the candidates with questions on tax and income support measures. Let’s give her loads of support by registering and attending this event!
Please forward this invitation to friends and neighbours and click the event link above to register via the facebook event page.
We hope to see you there!
“Health is so much more than health”: UCAN delivers Health Charter and Election Statement to MP’S.
On Tuesday 15 August, members of UCAN and supporters met on Parliament steps to hand over the Ucan Health Charter and Election statement UCAN Health Charter 2016 to Members of Parliament.
We were joined by supporters and by the fabulous, The Brass Razoo Band.
We began with Lisa with baby Zac. Lisa represented Tick for Kids. Tick for Kids and Child Poverty Action Group
Muriel Tunoho spoke on behalf of living Wage Network Living Wage and Health Care Aotearoa HCA Healthcare: Home and Paul Barber then spoke from The Equality Network The Equality Network and The New Zealand Council of Catholic Social Service .
From left to right. Debbie UCAN, Lisa and baby Zac, Tick for kids,CPAG, Muriel, living wage, HCA, Paul Equality Network, NCCSS.
Grant Robertson, Finance Minister from the Labour Party,
Jan Logie, Spokesperson for Social Development from The Green Party both gave their commitment to support the UCAN Health Charter and make it a reality as did
Ria Bond, Health Spokesperson, NZ First
This is a positive result as we have 3 political parties that have committed to our Charter.
For more information Please visit our website at ucannz.org.nz
Denbie Leyland
Action Groups work jointly on Child Poverty
PRESS RELEASE 21-4-17
UCAN, United Community Action Network’s Health Charter has received endorsement from the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG).
CPAG, an independent charity established in 1994, has maintained a robust focus on the elimination of poverty for the children of Aotearoa. Doctors, teachers, academics, healthcare workers and many other committed people contribute to the body of research and reportage that CPAG produces.
Approximately three hundred thousand children live in poverty in Aotearoa. If you add to this the older siblings, parents, extended family and whanau, the burden of poverty escalates. The long term impacts of poverty are widely documented: the tragic loss of potential of the children; increased difficulty in accessing affordable physical and mental healthcare; the increase in incidence of domestic violence; poorer educational outcomes; limited access to decent accommodation; and the tailspin of homelessness. This is an avoidable situation. There needs to be a willingness to engage, innovate, and reduce the impacts of these situations for the benefit of all.
CPAG states “child poverty could be eliminated completely. It’s all about Choice.” UCAN agrees, and this unfolding disaster is a failure of political policy and loss of values based politics.
UCAN spokesperson, Debbie Leyland, says, “These conditions need to be considered as the escalating crisis that it is. It’s brilliant, but also a tragedy, that organisations like CPAG are active and necessary. They are essential in these times to document and report the struggles of the most vulnerable among us. There is something seriously broken in New Zealand.”
ENDS
Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) Press Release.
Please see the press release from Child Poverty Action Group(CPAG) who have published this endorsement of the UCAN Health Charter. We thank CPAG for their ongoing commitment and advocacy to improving the health and wellbeing of children, and the families they live within, in Aotearoa.
Support for UCAN NZ Health Charter
Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) supports and endorses the Health Charter by the United Communities Action Network New Zealand (UCAN) that says “everyone deserves the right to health”.
UCAN, an organisation formed four years ago, believes that the right to health is, “being denied to many in Aotearoa-New Zealand, through poor access to health services, an unfair economic and education system that strongly favours the wealthy over the poor.”
CPAG agrees that much of the poor health among children in New Zealand is attributable to “inadequate and unhealthy housing, poor living environments that alienate vulnerable sections of the community.”
The link between poverty and poor mental and physical health among children, whose opportunities to thrive are compromised, is very real. Professor Innes Asher, Health Spokesperson for CPAG says that “poverty and unhealthy housing and inadequate basic health care are the drivers behind many of the thousands of children admitted to hospital each year with preventable diseases.
“Comprehensive effective policies are needed to change this grim situation which results in large numbers of children, many of whom are babies, becoming very sick and who often suffer lifelong damage.”
CPAG says that UCAN promoting the right to healthcare that is not met with a cost barrier is a commendable effort, and aligns with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which New Zealand ratified 24 years ago.
CPAG notes with great concern that over half a million New Zealanders cannot afford to see their GPs. We are asking that the Government extends the zero fees scheme for free access to General Practice to include all children up to their 18th birthdays.
This would be one of the measures needed toward a goal of halving the number of hospital admissions for preventable illness among children – which is currently around 40,000 annually.
The UCAN Health Charter (2016) also supports everyone having the right to affordable, safe and healthy housing.
CPAG hopes that there will be a greater commitment by the New Zealand Government to ensuring that every family has access to an affordable, healthy home. Instituting a rental Warrant of Fitness to ensure that a minimum standard is met and that homes are made to be safe, dry, and insulated would be a step toward ensuring better health for all children of low-income families.
Follow this link to download a pdf version of the UCAN Health Charter. Ends
UCAN - United Community Action Network Aotearoa NZ 