Charity ‘blown away’ by generous Kiwis donating Christmas presents for kids in foster care

Foster Hope’s Louise Burnie says the gifts help reassure foster children that someone’s watching out for them.

Volunteers at an Auckland charity say they’re “blown away” by the generosity of Kiwis during an “extra tough year” after being inundated with Christmas presents for their annual collection drive for children in foster care. But it warns there are some who will still be struggling through the holiday season. 

Louise Burnie, chairperson of the volunteer-run Foster Hope, said the whole downstairs area of her home in Auckland had been filled — then emptied as gifts were sent out to social workers to pass on to foster families — three times over.

“It's been an extra tough year for many families around New Zealand, and we've been blown away [about] the level of support we've received,” she told 1 NEWS. 

Burnie said given the difficulties people and businesses may be facing because of the Covid-19 pandemic, she wasn’t comfortable approaching people for this year’s collection drive. 

But they turned up in droves anyway.

“We didn’t approach anybody. As a result, I’m getting phone calls from businesses going, ‘We haven’t heard from you. We’ve been collecting all this stuff for you.’

“It’s been amazing.”

She said the presents would make a real difference in the lives of children in care. 

“It’s just nice for them to have something that they can take from placement to placement — something that stays with them and is theirs that they don’t need to keep handing back to whoever’s house they’re staying at.”

It also helped children in foster care to feel like they belonged where they were staying. There were instances she’d seen where a foster child got gifts of a lesser quantity or quality than biological children of a family, Burnie said.

“Unfortunately, sometimes you get extended families that just see foster kids as kind of strangers, really, that might only be there for a few months.

“It doesn't happen everywhere, and I know there are amazing foster families who very consciously make sure that everything is equal … but it happens more often than it should.”

Burnie said while she was thankful for the donations so far, there was still a lack of presents suitable for teens. Foster Hope is calling for new, unwrapped Christmas presents for the age group — items like sports equipment, headphones, blankets and board games. 

“People think of Christmas and they think of young kids, and they don’t automatically think of teenagers. They think of kids that believe in Santa, and they buy presents for those kids.” 

However, as Auckland’s collection drive was overflowing, Foster Hope in Northland, Otago and in Southland were “struggling to get donations”, she said. 

As the tourism sector dried up during the pandemic, Burnie said the charity had heard stories in Queenstown during winter of parents living in cars asking social workers to help their children find temporary homes that would be warmer and drier. 

“We have had families that have had a really tough time, and they know that they’re going to struggle for Christmas.”

The charity also saw a rise in demand for their help during the start of the first lockdown in March. The charity works with agencies to give thousands of backpacks a year to children entering care. Many of these children arrive into care with only the clothes on their backs, especially if they are placed into care quite suddenly. 

“Within that first week, I was getting social workers going, ‘Have you got any second-hand clothes because we’ve got kids moving, and we can’t buy clothes because everything’s shut,’” Burnie said. 

“They were quite panicked at that stage saying, ‘You know, they’re coming into care with nothing, and we’ve got nothing.’

“It was quite tricky to get the stuff that we did have out to social workers. I was leaving things out my front door and they had to come and collect it.”

For people wanting to donate, Burnie urged them to do so “sooner rather than later”, with the drive officially ending on Thursday. 

She said any leftover presents after the Christmas season would be given to foster children throughout the year. 

Foster Hope’s gift drive will close on December 10, with details on their website about the types of gifts they are looking for and drop-off locations.  

There are more than 6000 children in state care in New Zealand. 

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