Newstalk ZB
Dame Valerie Adams says it’s “sickening” that so many families in South Auckland still live in damp, mouldy houses that endanger their children’s health. The two-time Olympic shot-put champion, who grew up in a state house in South Auckland and still lives in the area, is now an ambassador for the Middlemore Foundation, the dedicated charitable fundraising arm for Kidz First. Along with the Herald, she visited a South Auckland family living in a converted garage with their disabled 5-year-old son as part of her work to raise funds for the foundation. Krishneel Gounder, a power meter technician, and his wife Keshni, live at the Manurewa property with their sons, 5-year-old Kiaansh and 2-year-old Kaviansh. Kiaansh was diagnosed with cerebral palsy in 2023, is quadriplegic and has to consume food and medicine through a tube. Dame Valerie Adams (left) visits the Gounder family as part of her role as an ambassador for Kidz First children's hospital, which is part of Middlemore Hospital. Photo / Annaleise Shortland The converted garage where the family lives has two small bedrooms and a main living space that encompasses a kitchen, laundry, sofa, a hospital bed for Kiaansh, and his wheelchair. A single heat pump – the unit’s only source of heating – is on the living room wall. Adams told the Herald that tapping on the glass windows of the family’s rental was a “triggering” reminder of her own childhood. “I grew up in a mouldy, damp home. There was always black mould everywhere during winter. It was cold with paper-thin windows, and you felt the draft coming through. That was our norm, or we grew up thinking it was normal,” she said. She said cold, damp homes and families sleeping together to keep warm in the winter was not unusual in South Auckland. “It makes me sad. It’s almost sickening sometimes because why are we still living like that here in New Zealand?” she said. Dame Valerie Adams (left) says cold, damp homes and families sleeping together to keep warm in the winter months is not unusual in South Auckland. Photo / Annaleise Shortland Adams said it was easy deciding to work alongside the Middlemore Foundation to promote better outcomes for people in her community. One of the programmes she’s driving is Jammies for June, a campaign aiming to deliver 25,000 pairs of pyjamas to families in need to keep children warm and help prevent hospital admissions. Adams said while providing pyjamas may not seem essential to some, such items were a luxury for many families. She said a cup of coffee can cost about $7 – equivalent to the cost of a pair of pyjamas. “But for a lot of these families, that’s expensive. They can’t afford to buy their kids pyjamas,” she said. Adams said it’s important to draw national attention to such realities as keeping children and families warm can help keep them out of hospital. She didn’t feel New Zealand was making sufficient progress on the issue, describing substandard living conditions as a “significant” issue. “It’s sad that we’re still here. We [as a country] can do better.” Family pays $480 a week for garage Keshni and Krishneel Gounder live in a converted garage in Manurewa with their 5-year-old child Kiaansh, who has cerebral palsy, and their 2-year-old, Kaviansh. Photo / Annaleise Shortland Krishneel Gounder said the family endured the bitterly cold winter nights by sleeping huddled together on the living room floor. “It’s really, really cold,” she told the Herald. “When it’s winter, we all sleep together on the mattress here on the [living room] floor. We do not sleep in the rooms.” The modified dwelling, which has thin glass windows, sits behind another house at the back of a section and is not listed as a separate, standalone dwelling. Keshni said it was “a bit congested”, but with weekly rent of $480 excluding power and internet it was more affordable than a lot of places. The onset of winter worried Keshni the most, as Kiaansh is vulnerable to severe respiratory illness. Cold condit...
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