One Percent Collective

Our partner charity Bellyful NZ is helping families at Kidz First Children’s Hospital feel cared for during some of the hardest moments of their lives. A warm meal might seem simple, but for exhausted parents staying beside a sick child, it can mean comfort, relief, and one less thing to worry about.

At Kidz First Children’s Hospital in South Auckland, families arrive every day carrying far more than overnight bags. Some have travelled from Pukekohe. Others from Ōtara, East Auckland and across the wider South Auckland community. What they share is the same worry – a child who needs hospital care.

For many families, that stress is compounded by something more practical: how to feed themselves while they stay with their child.

Wayne Dawn, Service Manager for Kidz First Inpatients at Middlemore Hospital, sees this reality every day.

“We have on many occasions encountered families who present who are struggling to provide the basics,” he says.

Meals for families have always been available through the hospital, but they are limited.

“We have seen times where a mother and father will share a single meal, or offer it to other siblings. This is the reality of our community.”

Late last year, volunteers from Bellyful Franklin began providing meals to the children’s ward, extending support already provided to the neonatal unit.

For families already under pressure, the difference is immediate.

“Having Bellyful meals available to us has been a gamechanger for the families that are ‘doing it tough’,” Wayne says.

“To outsiders they may seem like a small gesture, but to our families, a hot meal made with love is exactly the kind of support that gets families through tough times.”

The service is made possible through Bellyful Franklin Branch Coordinator Arna and dedicated volunteers who prepare and deliver meals for families staying with their children at the hospital.

Bellyful Chief Executive Sheena Revington says the initiative is a wonderful example of community kindness in action.

“Arna and the Franklin branch volunteers have shown such care and commitment in making this happen,” she says. “Our volunteers cook these meals knowing they’re going to families having a really tough time, and it’s a simple way to show those families that their community is standing alongside them.”

She adds, “Having a warm meal means one less thing for a whānau to worry about when their child is in hospital. It’s a way for communities to show families they’re not alone when life suddenly becomes overwhelming.”

For Wayne, the impact is clear.

As he puts it, quoting W***y Wonka & the Chocolate Factory:

“So shines a good deed in a weary world.”

“To me this epitomises the relationship between Kidz First and Bellyful – a shared common goal to provide some comfort to those that need it most.”

And thanks to supporters like One Percent Collective donors, those small acts of kindness are reaching more families when they need them most.

Learn more about Bellyful and lend your support. https://www.onepercentcollective.org/charity/bellyful

Every parent wants to see their child have a good start in life, a chance to be the best version of themselves. There’s something indescribable about seeing your child achieve things you hadn’t imagined possible. Indescribable, but you know it when you see it – just ask Nikolai’s parents.

Nikolai was born with Down syndrome, the world’s most common chromosomal variation in babies. It results in several challenges other children do not have to contend with, primary among them an impaired ability to speak. People living with Down syndrome often grow up to be non-verbal, living isolated lives, suffering preventable mental and physical problems, their lives heavily dependent on others. All because they do not have a voice.

But for Nikolai, this is far from the case.

Emerging from his teenage years, Nikolai has a full and exciting life. He has healthy friendships with his peers. He keeps fit through boxing and football. He’s creative, enjoying woodwork, art, and design. He’s always up for a family outing or a good game of Uno. And he’s racking up work experience in retail and hospitality. Nikolai is a brilliant example of the limits a young person with Down syndrome can burst through when properly supported.

That support started at a very young age; his family first got in touch with the UpsideDowns Education Trust when Nikolai was just 18 months old. UpsideDowns was able to provide the family with access to regular, individualised speech and language therapy sessions to help the toddler discover ways to communicated.

“The challenges for any child that can’t communicate is frustration,” says Nikolai’s mum. “We were very grateful to have the experience of a therapist to scaffold other forms of communication for us while Nikolai’s speech developed, which alleviated a lot of the frustration and allowed inclusion at Kindergarten and Primary School.”

Thanks to speech and language therapy, Nikolai’s family have celebrated many communication milestones; his first word, stringing several words together, successful full sentences. In his session these days, Nikolai is refining his conversational skills so he can continue developing amazing relationships.

“I love watching Nikolai interact with his friends, seeing him laugh and be heard,” says mum. “Nikolai can go into a shop and purchase an item and communicate with the assistant independently.”

Equipped with the communication skills he has worked hard over the years to hone, Nikolai finished school with Year 13 last year and is now enjoying the world of work experience, which he attends four days a week without needing support. He is quickly picking up the skills needed for kitchen work as well as serving customers in a retain environment, including operating the EFTPOS machine.

Nikolai’s achievements are down to his personal drive, the loving support of his family, and the remarkable skill and care of his speech and language therapist. The UpsideDowns Education Trust is honoured to have walked alongside Nikolai through these years of progress.

“How do you describe to people, so they understand the lifeline the Trust’s funding has given us?” Nikolai’s mum wonders. “It has made such a positive impact in our lives, and we are very humbled by the kindness and generosity of others. It takes a village to raise a child, and the UpsideDowns Education Trust is our village.”

Learn more about UpsideDowns and lend your support. (Link in comments)

UpsideDowns + One Percent Collective At UpsideDowns, we believe every child with Down syndrome deserves a voice. We're here to make that belief a reality by funding essential speech-language therapy, helping kids communicate, gain confidence, and achieve independence.