Petition opposing child poverty gains strength
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Support for Jazmine Heka’s petition is still growing in the community, and shows no sign of fading. At a Market in the Hutt Valley, Karen spent several hours collecting signatures for Jazmine’s petition,
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Because of the nature of the petitions, the Organisor of the Market refused to accept any fee for hiring the table.
The three petitions called for
- We request that the House of Representatives pass legislation to provide free healthy school lunches to all children attending schools
- We request that the House of Representatives pass legislation to provide free healthcare for all children including prescription costs
- We request that the House of Representatives pass legislation to introduce warrant of fitness’s for all rental houses
Karen said there was considerable support for the petitions, and said there was only one person who commented negatively about poor families.,
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Karen had four food items on the table; a packet of 750gm “Pam’s” ‘weetbix’; 500gr ‘Budget Spirals’ dried pasta; a can of 420gr Watties of spaghatti; and 250gr Sanitarium “Marmite”. The four items came to around $10 from a supermarket.
She described the growing cost of food as hard for low-income families.
One person who signed the petitions agreed, and said that buying milk and bread to go with those four staples would easily add another $5 to $7 to that purchase,
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Another signature being added to the three petitions,
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Karen later advised that she had collected approximately 70 signatures, and that some had requested blank copies to take away, to gather their own signatures.
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Previous Blog post
Additional
Radio NZ: Teenage child poverty activist (31 January 2012)
Teen becomes leading voice on child poverty
Contact Jazmine
Email: childrenagainstpoverty@hotmail.co.nz
Facebook: Children-Against-Poverty
Snailmail: PO Box 585, Whangarei 0140
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Good on you Karen. It’s good people like you that make this country work and not those dickheads in parliment.