One in six Kiwi children live in poverty, and it greatly annoys Bay of Plenty content creator Jordan Watson - known for his How to Dad parenting videos - when Kiwis are surprised by this statistic.
The father-of-three says people need to “wake up” and realise “this is happening in your neighbourhood”.
That’s why this week the YouTube star and The Hits radio hosts Jono and Ben will be playing handball - also known as four square - for 24 hours, raising money and awareness for a children’s charity.
Watson told the Bay of Plenty Times he had “no idea” how he would get through the marathon session.
“[But] as cheesy as it sounds, every time you think ‘Oh man, I need to tap out’, you do have to just think about why you’re doing it … it’s for kids all around New Zealand.”
Watson, aims to raise $350,000 for KidsCan – a New Zealand charity helping children affected by poverty.
KidsCan has 200 schools and early childhood education centres on the waitlist for its support – the highest number since 2018.
Watson and The Hits’ duo are starting the “handball-athon” at 8am tomorrow at the Auckland Netball Centre.
Jono Pryor and Ben Boyce have forged a successful working partnership over the past 15 years. Photo/ Michael Craig.
There will be a rotation of “famous celebrity faces” and KidsCan staff for the fourth player, Jordan says.
Where the KidsCanBall idea came from
As a KidsCan ambassador, Watson generally used his brand and social media – he has 1.4 million followers on his How to Dad YouTube channel – to encourage people to donate.
Watson says, however, it was “bloody hard” to convince people.
“I’ve always had the idea of wanting to do something bigger ...
Jordan says every morning when he dropped his children off at school he would “jump in and play handball with the Year 6 kids”.
“I realised … every single school in New Zealand does this.”
Jordan says he had been playing in the backyard of his Pāpāmoa home with his three children “in preparation for the big event”.
Joradn days during the handball-athon, the trio would get a six-minute break for every hour.
“We can skip them and add them up so … we might be able to get a 20-minute sleep in the middle of the night.”
Jordan says being an ambassador for KidsCan involved educating people.
Stats NZ data released in February showed more Kiwi children were living in poverty and experiencing material hardship in the year to June compared with the previous year.
On children in poverty after housing costs, there was a 3.1 percentage point increase to 17.5 per cent from 14.4 per cent - translating to one in every six children living in poverty under that measure, NZ Herald reported.
Low disposable income is defined as having less than 50 per cent of the median equivalised disposable household income. Material hardship is defined as lacking six or more key items. Shaded areas show the upper and lower confidence intervals for the estimates. Source.
“It annoys me so much that New Zealanders, once they hear the stat that one in six Kiwi kids are living in hardship, they’re like, ‘What? In New Zealand? Really? Are you sure that number’s right?’
“And it is right. And sometimes you’ve got to reach through your computer screen and just give people a little slap just to be like, ‘Wake up mate, this is happening in your neighbourhood.”
Families choosing between paying for food or their home
Jordan says the cost of living crisis for lower-income families meant they were choosing between putting dinner on the table or keeping a roof over their child’s head.
“The fact that there are 200 schools on the waitlist is really sad and hopefully with this KidsCanBall we can get a heap of those schools off the waitlist if we can hit that goal of $350,000.”
Jordan says about $75,000 had been raised as of Wednesday morning.
‘Hundreds’ of Bay children need support
KidsCan chief executive Julie Chapman says it supported 86 schools and 23 early childhood centres in the Bay of Plenty with food, jackets, shoes and health products.
Julie says the cost-of-living crisis meant more families were struggling to make ends meet and teachers noticed more children arriving at school hungry, and without warm clothes and shoes.
She says “hundreds of children” were waiting for support in the region.
“We can’t reach those children without more funding – which is why we’re so grateful to our ambassador Jordan Watson for bringing ‘KidsCanBall’ to life.”
Chapman thanked everyone who was supporting the challenge.
“Donations will help us get the essentials to more kids living in hardship – so they can focus on learning.”
People can donate on the KidsCanBall website and tune into the action from 8am.
Bay of Plenty Times publisher NZME also owns The Hits radio station.
Megan Wilson is a health and general news reporter for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has been a journalist since 2021.
- Megan Wilson, Bay of Plenty Times
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