PLEA FOR MORE PERSONAL INTEREST IN CHILDREN

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29250, 7 July 1960, Page 2

PLEA FOR MORE PERSONAL INTEREST IN CHILDREN

A plea for more personal interest in their sponsored children has been sent by field workers for the Save the Children Fund in- Italy to sponsors in. New Zealand. The message was brought by Mr Colin Averill, who spoke to the annual meeting of the North Canterbury branch of the Save the Children Fund yesterday, about his visit to the Italian child, Adolnho, sponsored by Mr Averill’s parents. Dr. L. C. L. Averill and Mrs Averill. Adolpho lived in. a remote village 5000 ft up in the Apennine

mountains, near Florence, said Mr Averill. To see him he had driven up a terrible road, impassable in winter. Adolpho, he found, was a boy of 11 or 12 years, very shy, and dressed in his best for the occasion, Mr Averill said. His mother was 42 years old, but looked 80, and was dressed -in rags. His father had been blind since birth. Adolpho had been found by the field worker five years ago, leading his blind father through the street begging for food. The totail interne of the family, excluding their income from the Save the Children Fund, was £5O a year. The large family lived together in a room 10ft by Bft, with twp tiny, dark bedrooms. Poverty Rife Poverty and unemployment were aS rife in the towns as in the villages, said Mr Averill. The unemployed milled around the streets and made a breeding ground for communism. The Government was trying to assist with emigration schemes. “New Zealand will not take these Italian immigrants,” said Mr Averill. . Adolpho will have a better chance of a job as his sponsors have arranged for him to attend a trade school. “But that is no guarantee,” said Mr Averill. Tribute To Fund He paid a tribute to the work of the Save the Children Fund in Italy. “Adolpho is a bad case, but by no means the worst.” he said. The president of the North Canterbury branch of the Save the Children Fund (Miss M. G. Havelaar), in thanking Mr Averill, said that she had a very long list of Italian children waiting for sponsors.