Owen Glenn has returned to New
Zealand for the launch of his much anticipated biography but more importantly
he says he’s back to support children and families and to raise attention to New Zealand’s
family violence and child abuse statistics and his commitment to reverse them.
Glenn’s
Foundation (The Glenn Family Foundation) has been in operation for over 30
years and includes a vast array of projects from leprosy to child prostitution
and trafficking but it is the New Zealand’s high statistics in child abuse and
family violence that are currently on Glenn’s radar.
“It is
shocking to think in a beautiful country like New Zealand these problems exist
but the growing statistics are alarming and it’s simply not good enough. People
don’t realise that the cost of domestic violence and child abuse to the New
Zealand economy is the equivalent of rebuilding Christchurch every four years –
forever. It’s a national embarrassment.”
Glenn has had his Foundation focusing on a project, which he
launched today in Otara, that centres on helping to build stronger
communities.
“I believe that if a community is strong, its people are strong.
Strong communities means people care about each other, they look out for one
another, there’s a sense of pride in where they live and where they go to
school and work. Strong communities mean
less crime, safer streets, less domestic violence and children that are safe
from abuse and harm. Children in strong
communities grow up in loving families with supportive neighbours. In such environments children are able to
engage in learning, and grow up to be confident, happy and productive adults
and parents themselves.”
Glenn says he has been concerned for some time about New Zealand’s
growing statistics in child abuse and family violence citing an opinion piece
he wrote about it for the New Zealand Herald in October last year.
“It didn’t raise a peep out of anyone so I’m going to ‘put my
money where my mouth is’ launching a project that is centred on children and
young people, their families and the neighbourhoods and community in which they
live. The aim is, using Otara as the
test case’, to help the Otara community to provide its children and young
people with a safe and supportive environment in which to grow and
prosper.”
Glenn says each of our children deserves the right to become a confident,
well-educated adult who is able to earn a decent living and be a good parent.
“We ALL owe our children this.
This is a simple goal but not always an easy one to achieve. What has
become most apparent from the research is that while there are lots of
programmes out there, unfortunately there is a significant lack of connection
and coordination amongst them. Many are
subject to short-term and sporadic funding contracts and winning funding and
complying with the reporting requirements of these contracts becomes the
principal objectives, rather than what they are really trying to achieve.”
Glenn says while
his Foundation’s focus is with the suburb of Otara but Glenn stresses he is not
singling them out.
“The answer is simple – I lived here long ago and when I was a
young married man with children and I remember some of the things I saw at that
time going on around me. In fact, it
was the violence and maltreatment of children that I saw then, that helped me
decide to leave this country to go and live in Australia. That was a long time
ago and I know, since then, some things have changed.”
Glenn says what was then mostly a European/Pakeha suburb is now a
place where the overwhelming ethnicity is Maori and Pacifica. There has been a great deal of positive
changes in Otara as a community.
“But I know that it is still a community that suffers from
extremely low incomes, high unemployment, high welfare dependence, high levels
of transience and truancy from school, high levels of teenage pregnancy, high
levels of substandard and crowded housing, and poor childhood and adult health.
“We have to start somewhere, so where better than Otara, a place
where I once lived and still have an affinity with.
Everyone agrees it is a
'Human Right' to live free from violence, yet for many New Zealanders, their
home is where they are most at risk.”
Glenn is so committed and fired up about this
he will fund a Commission of Inquiry to get to the bottom of why domestic violence
and child abuse still remains such a major issue in New Zealand and to solve
this issue.
“Together, with other interested parties I
will fund it because I'm not willing to let whom-ever is in Government hide
behind the cost as a barrier, to avoid embarrassment. I'll work with people who share my passion in this area to foot the bill
to make sure it happens.
“It will be money well spent, not just
reducing the pain and harm inflicted on victims of domestic violence and child
abuse, but reducing the $8 billion per year family violence costs New Zealand
directly and indirectly.”
Glenn has his Foundation has met hundreds of
community organisations doing wonderful work, but they need:
-
A long-term funding streams, not intermittent
contracts.
-
A national strategy they can feel a part of, so
their local work, every day, contributes to solving this national problem.
Glenn says
the projects his Foundation will get involved with will aim to pull people
together.
“As I said
earlier, it’s all about building stronger communities, ‘for community by
community’. We all need to wake up because this is a national epidemic which
needs to be stopped as soon as possible.”
1 comment:
Hi there, I haven't the opportunity to read his book yet. I will be interested to see recommendations and implementations as a result of the millions. I grew up with some family mental illness issues, in a not so well thought of suburb, experienced and left family violence 16 yrs ago and now studying. I know one thing sport helped take my mind off things and gave me something to look fwd to at weekends. Money was an issue, so I played one sport. Get kids into extra-curricular activities and get get people supporting families actually in communities. Even Plunket often cuts child visits now...family abuse, easy to get away with..sure is then. Developing links with families, parents, guys, young people where trust is formed then throwing money at the problem I hope will work. We can break the cycle, give hope...we need to equip people to believe that!
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