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National | Youth

Voyce Whakarongo Mai: In pursuit of change

There are 3,500 Māori children in care of Oranga Tamariki the Ministry for Vulnerable Children. Founder of Voyce Whakarongo Mai Tupua Urlich is calling on Māori leaders to help.

Voyce Whakarongo Mai is New Zealand’s first advocacy service for children in care of Oranga Tamariki. Urlich says, “Voyce Whakarongo Mai is about creating not only a voice but connection. Isolation should not be a thing in our country where we have over 5000 young people in our care system we need to create change and that is exactly what we are going to do.

With 3,500 Maori children in care Urlich is calling on Iwi leaders and tribes to step up and help.

“There are over 5,500 and currently there is between 63 - 65% of that are Maori so it says a lot in terms of the system and how important Iwi are to have working with us and guiding the way forward.”

Empowering children's voices to be heard and listened to and enabling a pathway to their cultural identity is what Voyce Whakarongo Mai is all about, an advocacy service in pursuit of change for young people in care of Oranga Tamariki.

“This is non-government this is truly us and our voice to the system our way of influencing the lives of our tamariki. We are going to build a culture from the ground up and we are going to make young people belong to a system that is something that really empowers them.”

Monique Goodhew Trustee of Voyce Whakarongo Mai believes they are helping to provide change and hope for children in care.  Both Urlich and Goodhew were raised under the care of Child Youth & Family and know first-hand what is needed.

Goodhew says, “The most important thing about Voyce Whakarongo Mai to me is the consecutiveness of children to connect them to give them a structure to give them a backbone you don’t know where you are going if you don’t know where you are from to me that is the most important part.”

Urlich says, “These young people they are our lives now so we need to stay there be with them guild help them empower them to make the way forward because we don’t want young people going through the same struggle that we have gone through we don’t want the negativity in their life.”

For more info: https://www.voyce.org.nz/

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Youth