What is Te Kainga?

Te Kainga opened as a child-care centre at 39 Arthur Street towards the end of 1971. The original committee overcame many obstacles in obtaining a house at a low rental from the City Council, in getting it done up to the standard required by the authorities and in manning the centre with voluntary helpers.

Basically, Te Kainga is a group of people, some of whom need care for their own children, and some of whom are simply interested and concerned in child-care. Membership in the society is voluntary, and open to anyone who subscribes to its aims and objects, as set out, in the constitution. In practical terms, this means that the parents of the children who are looked after at the centre, the supervisors, and a wide variety of voluntary helpers, all work together for the smooth running and overall success of the nursery.

This co-operative basis on which TeKainga is run is one of its most important features. It is a project which was brought about by community effort, in response to community need, and which fulfills several functions besides the actual care of children. Many of our helpers are mothers with one or two children who welcome the opportunity to let them socialise with a larger group. Others are high-school, university, and training-college students, who enjoy the contact with small children, and gain some practical insight for their studies. We were asked by the former Child-Welfare Department to offer company, reassurance, and practical experience to unmarried, pregnant girls who found themselves in an isolated situation once they had left work. We have also been asked to allow students of child development from the Polytechnic nursing course to do observation work at Te Kainga. Finally, we find that parental involvement in the running of the nursery gives great satisfaction to both the parents, who can see for themselves how their child is getting on, and to the child, who sees his parents as belonging to the nursery situation, and comes to regard it virtually as a second home.

A second important feature of Te Kainga is that it is free. This means that we can pursue a policy of helping those with financial problems, such as solo parents and others. Most parents do, in fact contribute as much as they are able. Until this year we have managed an income consisting solely of donations.

The free and cooperative basis of TeKainga has encouraged a multiracial, multicultural membership from the beginning. We feel that this provides a very fruitful environment for a number of children from a variety of income groups and backgrounds.

Unlike many child-care centres in the Wellington area, Te Kainga takes children of any age from 0 to 5, and has also catered for school-age children after school. Commercially run centres will seldom take children under two years of age which frequently results in the splitting of families.

We have a current waiting list of 25, these being the most urgent gases. We have many referrals from other centres of children under two, and turn away two or three people each week who come hoping for care for their children. Last year we had at least 200 requests for places, most of which we could not fulfill. We believe that government assistance for our centre and others similar will encourage the development of a high standard of child-care. If no assistance is forthcoming, the vacuum will be filled by commercial enterprise, with profit as the main motive.

Up until now, our material assistance has come from the Wellington City Corporation, from Trade Unions, parents, and benevolent individuals. However, Te Kainga needs a sum of $3,210 to pay the supervisors' salaries for the remainder of 1973.

Our current financial situation is such that we can afford to pay salaries for only two more weeks. Unless we receive prompt financial assistance from some quarter we shall be forced to dismiss the supervisors and close down the child-care centre.