They grew up around violence, watched as mates were jailed and witnessed loved ones sleeping rough.Others have turned to robbing people and homes to get money for food, alcohol and drugs.Porirua teenagers Merika Harper Brown, 16, and Mark Vaoese, 17, know the hardships of living poor, watching friends go hungry and turning to gangs.
They are among 230,000 children identified as living below the poverty line in a highly critical report made public yesterday by the Children's Commissioner and Barnardos.The teens have documented their experiences on film for a new child poverty website."Most of the boys I grew up with came from broken homes too so we made our own gang," said Mark, who was kicked out of school in 2005 for "smoking weed".
"Some of them are in prison for heaps of things - assaults and burgs mostly. I reckon if I kept hanging round with them I would have been there now."Other examples of hardship experienced by children included:A girl thrown out of home who couldn't afford a school uniform so got kicked out of school then turned to prostitution.
A girl who slept rough in a bus shelter because "it's better than listening to my parents fighting and drinking all the time".A boy who went to school sick because his mother could not afford to take time off work.More than one-in-five children are living in poverty, the report says, putting them at risk of educational failure, undermining job prospects and making them more likely to suffer sickness, abuse, or die young.
Children's Commissioner Cindy Kiro said poverty limited children's opportunities, had serious long-term consequences and was highly unfair.Children from single parent families were five times more likely to live in poverty and poverty rates were much higher among disabled children, Maori and Pasifika kids.
Poverty statistics have improved thanks to initiatives such as Working for Families and better access to primary health care, the report says.But the buying power of benefits payments are still well below those cut in 1991 and it was immoral for a First World country to have the equivalent of "a whole city of children" living below the poverty line, Dr Kiro said.
New Zealand's child poverty statistics lag behind other developed countries.The report makes a raft of recommendations to lift our underclass out of poverty and give poor kids the same chances as other children.
Social Development Minister Ruth Dyson said 130,000 children had been lifted out of poverty thanks to Government policies and higher employment.She conceded there was "more to be done" on the issue of child poverty and delivering on quality education, employment opportunities and support for families.