Homeless appeal

Press, 13 December 1986, Page 1

Homeless appeal

Outside Christchurch Cathedral yesterday on behalf of the homeless is Mrs Jackie Langdale Hunt (above), inside a cardboard shanty. The display marked the opening of the National Council of Churches Christmas appeal.

This year the appeal is for the world’s homeless — a theme to be echoed by next year’s International Year of Shelter for the Homeless. Several shanties were built and ethnic meals were cooked and there was Latin American dancing. The lights on the city Christmas tree went on last evening.

The N.C.C. wants to raise $630,000 from the

appeal to distribute to several projects for the homeless through the Christian World Service. Among the projects is a resettlement for Palestinian and Asian refugees, community development in Botswana, and Northern Brazilian slum districts, and worker land rights organisations in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

By supporting land rights organisations, the N.C.C. was fighting the causes of homelessness as well as the results,

said a Christian World Service worker, Ms Elizabeth Mackie. Land take-overs by multi-national companies caused as much upheaval as wars and famines. “We’re supporting people who are taking steps to fight oppression in their own countries,” she said. The appeal also helped inform New Zealanders of ways they could help, such as buying Third World products such as tea and coffee, from aid outlets.

New Zealand bought these products at prices which were too cheap to give the workers a decent wage. Aid outlets charged a more expensive, but “honest” price, said Ms Mackie.