Collection: Blog

I've been thinking a lot lately - and I think about it a lot in general - about what exactly it is that the Aunties do. And what I do. Not the logistics or the practical everyday stuff, but the exact nature of the spirit of it. What helping is, and is that what we do? Do we make change? What exactly is it that we're doing here? Lots of words are chucked around - helping, fixing, changemakers......I guess...

A number of years ago - not quite 5, but more than 2 - I met the wondrous Michele A'Court. We'd been communicating online, making a friendship as you do. I think, if memory serves me (which it doesn't very often seeing I'm in my early 50's and menopause is A Thing), that she brought up the idea of having a comedy gig to raise money for us on our very first meeting in person. This idea thrilled me,...

A while ago, in the refuge, I met a young woman with her mum. She's 16. and when I met her she was shut down. Closed face, hardened. Staunch. Things happened, and her mum has disappeared, so she's living, with her sister, with a caregiver - a wonderful older woman, with a large family who have taken the girls in, and made them their own. And I have also made her my own, with her permission.I've been in her...

July was all about trips for the kids, meeting extraordinary humans and shopping.Let’s start with the shopping – it happens in two ways. Auntie Jackie took nine women to the Aunties storage unit which we use like a shop, except that no-one pays for anything. People get to choose what they want from our donated clothing and linen and other supplies for themselves and their children. This month that included a mother choosing clothes for a little boy about...

I've been doing this work for around 4 1/2 years and I've learned a few things about women's refuges. One of those things is how women's refuges in NZ actually operate - the structure of that, and what it looks like. I do not work for any women's refuges or for the National Collective of Independent Women's Refuge (most people refer to it as Women's Refuge). Everything written here is what I have pieced together through my work, my...

Today was one of those special days. I am privileged to have them more than most people, and I live in the joy and beauty of them.It all started a couple of months ago when I met a woman and her teenaged girls at the refuge. There had been terrible things happen, and they were, at first, relieved to be there. But the mum was lost in her own demons, and after a while, the two girls went to...

An update, and an apology from Auntie Michele. Part of my job as Aunties Chair is to keep you all updated with what has been achieved each month but I’ve been swanning about on the other side of the world for a bit and have missed officially reporting back for a few weeks. Auntie Jackie, who is made of superhero stuff, has done a grand job of keeping in touch with everyone and just generally “doing the do” but...

School bags, blue hair, swimming lessons, food, phones and new collaborations – so much has happened in the last couple of months in the life of the Aunties we haven’t even officially reported in. Aunty Jackie has done a fine job of staying in touch with everyone, but here’s the official summary of what the Aunties did so far this year.Let’s go back to Christmas when the Aunties pulled out all the stops to give women and kids in...

Yesterday was a big donations pick up day. I asked a friend, Blair, if he would come and help me. And then I asked him if he'd write about it, in an effort to make other people maybe think about doing it too. These are his words (and I didn't pay him, I promise).Jackie Clark is technically the liaison, advocate and founder of The Aunties but really, she is just a force of nature with a mind like a...

This year has been a seminal one, both for me personally, and for the Aunties. There are a lot of people to thank - people who were uber aunties, and people who made my job coordinating donations for first 2, and now 5, womens refuges, much easier.Thanks first and foremost to the people who said yes to me this year.  The Aunties Board: who I approached for that express purpose early in the year, who all said yes and...

Many of you know that at the end of September, I quit my teaching job in order to Aunty more fulltime. I thought that may be a couple of days a week. But at the moment, it really is fulltime. I've done this post more as a sort of accounting to myself, and been surprised at what this job actually consists of. It's also a useful log for later, when I have to account to others for hours worked. ...

November has been a pretty special month for us – Auntie Jackie (our Auntie-In-Charge) retired from her teaching position and became a fulltime, hands-on, roll-your-sleeves-up auntie. This is, right now, unpaid work but one day we hope to find ways to fund the leadership she gives us. So because we have a fulltime Auntie, a lot has been done. We made contact with a particularly vulnerable young woman and provided bedding for her, plus bedding for two Shine refuges. We...