Haven For Children

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32303, 22 May 1970, Page 12

Haven For Children

The welfare of children is something that comes close to the heart of the average adult in any community. Christchurch is fortunate in haying several organisations actively concerned .with child welfare. One of them, an organisation to which harassed parents may turn in a domestic emergency, is perhaps less well known than it deserves to be. The Cholmondeley Children’s Home, in a lovely setting at Governor’s Bay, undertakes the care of children (girls of three to 12 years of age, boys of three to 10) for limited periods when illness or some other cause has made proper parental care temporarily impossible, or when the child itself is in need of convalescent attention. Brothers and sisters may even be admitted together when circumstances warrant. The children adjust themselves very readily to a happy environment in which their health is safeguarded and their schooling is not interrupted.

Since the home gets no Government aid other than a small grant for each child, those responsible for its administration have to lean heavily on public sympathy and support. Christchurch citizens have not failed Cholmondeley in the past, and the board confidently expects that today’s street collection will surpass last year’s helpful total of a little more than $4OOO. The home would also be helped by an increased membership of its sponsoring body (the Friends of Cholmondeley Home), sponsorship by the public of children through weekly payments for their maintenance, and by gifts and bequests. Calls on the home for help are increasing; and higher costs and wages make it difficult to meet the demand. Generous support today will enable the home’s administrators and staff to continue the valuable work so quietly and unselfishly carried on for 70 years.