Yesterday we got to visit an amazing school outside of Wellington. He Huarahi Tamariki is a school for young parents with child care on site for the mothers (and occasionally fathers) who attend the school. New Zealand has a large correspondence school for kids who live in rural areas but it also can be accessed by students like these women who find it difficult to be served by a traditional school. The school provides teachers who work individually with students on their correspondence school curriculum and they have several parenting, computer, and fitness classes that they do all together. The school was an amazingly warm and welcoming community. One of the older students was teaching a dance class to the younger students when her 7 week old baby started fussing in the nursery. One of the child care workers came and got her to feed her daughter and another student stepped up to teach the dance class.
All the girls I talked to at the school were so grateful for the opportunity to be at the school. Most said that if they weren't at HHT they would have had to drop out of school to get a job and their children would be in day care. At HHT they can see their kids during morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, and if they are nursing they are allowed to feed their babies as much as necessary. The school also helps them negotiate the social welfare system in order to get the benefits they need to stay in school.
I spent most of the morning with Maiata, who has a nine month old daughter named Naria. Maiata was working through an English packet on reading unfamiliar texts and was very excited to have me sit down and help her. While we worked she told me about her daughter and what it meant to her to be at this school. We learned later from the principal of the school that many of the students are kicked out of their houses when they get pregnant or are abused by the fathers of their babies and the school helps them find housing and get restraining orders, etc. Before we left Maiata gave me a letter and a photo of Naria. In it she told me that Naria had been without a name for a week but she finally decided to name her after her younger sister who had died of cancer at the age of 3. The visit was very moving because while these girls have had such a hard life in so many ways, the school was a place of real hope for them and it was wonderful to get to be a part of that for the morning.
Me and Maiata.
All the girls I talked to at the school were so grateful for the opportunity to be at the school. Most said that if they weren't at HHT they would have had to drop out of school to get a job and their children would be in day care. At HHT they can see their kids during morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, and if they are nursing they are allowed to feed their babies as much as necessary. The school also helps them negotiate the social welfare system in order to get the benefits they need to stay in school.
I spent most of the morning with Maiata, who has a nine month old daughter named Naria. Maiata was working through an English packet on reading unfamiliar texts and was very excited to have me sit down and help her. While we worked she told me about her daughter and what it meant to her to be at this school. We learned later from the principal of the school that many of the students are kicked out of their houses when they get pregnant or are abused by the fathers of their babies and the school helps them find housing and get restraining orders, etc. Before we left Maiata gave me a letter and a photo of Naria. In it she told me that Naria had been without a name for a week but she finally decided to name her after her younger sister who had died of cancer at the age of 3. The visit was very moving because while these girls have had such a hard life in so many ways, the school was a place of real hope for them and it was wonderful to get to be a part of that for the morning.
Me and Maiata.
<< Home