Autumn update

Inherited debt burdens young family

You helped a mum with food and the financial skills to get out of debt

Janice was a young mum bringing up her five young children on her own while her husband was in prison. Finances were tight and she could barely provide food for her family. A referral by her social worker brought her to the attention of the team at the South Auckland Christian Foodbank (SACF).

They delivered her a food- parcel and talked to her about budgeting assistance to help her in the longer term. She worked with a local budget advisor to develop a financial plan to improve her financial situation. During this time SACF supported her with food- parcels.

Janice also enrolled in their five-week financial capability course while being pregnant with a little boy. She was determined to make it work for her children. It was during the course that Janice said that she had been struggling with debt ever since she was a teenager. She had inherited a debt from her mother and was still trying to pay this off as well as her own debt. She was also paying $500 a week in rent.

Following the birth of her baby, Janice got herself two part-time jobs and is now able to manage her budget and control her finances.

At a recent follow up with her, she shared that when her husband came out of prison, he did not recognise her because of the huge changes that she had made to her life.

Thank you again for being part of this and supporting Janice and so many others in our community. The benefit to people’s lives is life changing.

Providing food and budgeting skills

Many families who request a food-parcel from SACFB are then engaged in budgeting after their first food-parcel. The families are referred to budget advisors that SACF trust and work with so that vulnerable families are given the best chance of turning their financial situation into a position where they can feed their families instead of being reliant on foodbanks.

Grateful thanks from South Auckland Christian Foodbank

The Caring Foundation’s donors are a vital part of this story and should be very proud of what is being achieved for so many. An increase in need in our community during COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdowns couldn’t have been met without the amazing support CCF has been to our organisation.

Thank you so much. South Auckland Christian Foodbank

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You gave a family a new start

Support worker from Asylum Seeker Trust turns her experience into help for others seeking asylum

May realised that there was no future for her or her sons in Syria. War engulfed every aspect of their lives and she knew that when her sons were old enough they would have to complete compulsory military service.

Despite running a very large beauty therapy business with over 90 staff, she left her home country and claimed asylum in New Zealand in 2015.

She completed the asylum process herself and was granted refugee status. Knowing that she needed to learn new skills to support her family, she completed further training in computing and writing, and in September 2019 she joined the team at Asylum Seekers Support Trust as a support worker.

Understanding what the Trust’s clients are going through, makes May an invaluable member of the team. She understands first- hand the asylum process and how to complete immigration forms, which for some seeking asylum is a huge barrier. And she can connect with clients, especially those who speak Arabic.

She also takes care of their food delivery programme, feeding approximately 50 families and individuals every week.

Your donation helps fund May’s salary as a Support Worker at Asylum Seekers Support Trust so she can provide culturally appropriate help to asylum seekers and provide for her family.

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A message from Bishop Pat

“Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did to me.” (Matthew 25: 40)

In Pope Francis’s latest book with Austin Ivereigh “Let us Dream” he invites us to use the pandemic as a trigger to help reset our lives. He speaks of ‘covid moments’ in his own life, such as his near-death illness at the age of 21 when he struggled to breathe.

Pope Francis says these ‘covid moments’ can turn our world upside down but they can also be grace times when God can help us to see necessary changes we need to make.

I ask you all, can we use this global upheaval to perhaps dream of a better world for all, a new world?

Francis believes that the pandemic has prompted us to realise how interdependent we all are in our global village. We must care for one another if we are to have any future ourselves.

This was the vision that Isaiah embraced by our Lord in the synagogue at Nazareth at the very start of his public life after his baptism by John. He returned to Galilee with the power of the Spirit in him: “The Spirit of the Lord has been given to me ... He has sent me to give good news to the poor, liberty for captives, and new sight for the blind.”

This was our Lord’s mission and it is also ours: to care for all, especially for those on the fringes of society.

Our mission as Catholics is to care for the poor.

I ask you to keep the work of my Foundation in your prayers, the agencies and charities they work with, and our brothers and sisters in need. My heart-filled gratitude to you, dear supporters, for your compassion and support of my Caring Foundation.

With every blessing,

Bishop Pat