CHILDREN IN HOMES

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27376, 15 June 1954, Page 12

CHILDREN IN HOMES

Plea For Friendship

PERSONAL CONTACT NEEDED

A gentleman from Auckland, who has taken and still is taking a keen practical interest in the inmates of homes for children, makes an appeal to the citizens of Christchurch to take a close and personal interest in these children. . Preferring to be known as “A Friend,” the Aucklander, who has made personal contact with children in homes as widely separated as “The Nest,” Hamilton, and the Christchurch and Dunedin Presbyterian Homes, recently showed his own practical interest in the Christchurch children by buying clothing for them and permitting each child to choose a garment according to his or her own taste. He has since made other contacts with the children, inviting them in small groups to be guests at meals at his hotel.

“A Friend” is convinced that the best way to help these future citizens, who lack the advantages of belonging to a happy family circle, is for wellintentioned persons to take a personal interest in them and to encourage them to feel that they are not a “forgotten generation.”

The great need of these children, he thinks, is the need of personal affection. He wants them to feel that in the world outside the kindly institutions in which they live they have sincere friends who are interested in them and in their future; so that when the time comes for them to leave the homes and make their way in the outside world, they will not be afraid, but will feel that they are coming into a friendly place, in which they will receive from many good citizens encouragement and help to make their own way and to face life with confidence.

“A Friend” suggests that citizens should make it their business to visit the homes, to exchange a cheery word with the children and to invite them to share at times the happy atmosphere of their own homes. This, he thinks, will do more for the children’s happiness and confidence than anything else could do.