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Two local women who have used their talents, empathy and determination to make life more bearable for those in need were honoured by Hibiscus Coast Zonta Club on Monday, March 8 – International Women’s Day and Zonta Rose Day.
KidsCan and Pet Refuge NZ founder Julie Chapman and the woman who started the Yarnteeze knitting club, Trish Stewart, were both presented with yellow roses for their services to the community by recently elected Zonta president Jacqui Burnett.
Julie Chapman started the KidsCan charity for children living in poverty in 2005 and the organisation now works with 822 low decile schools and 50 early childhood centres. She said although the Government’s new free school lunch initiative would help a little, Covid-19 had exacerbated the issue and KidsCan was currently helping 40,000 children a week. Her newest project, Pet Refuge, was designed to help women living with violence to leave abusive partners by providing a safe place for their pets.
“We found 53 percent of women had delayed leaving because of pets. Pets are family,” she said.
Julie is building the new refuge on rural land west of Silverdale and it is expected to open by July.
Trish Stewart is the founder of Yarnteeze, a knitting group that makes clothing, blankets and soft toys for babies and children of women who have endured violence, homelessness or poverty. The knitted and crocheted items are distributed via I Got Your Back Pack, Grandparents Raising Grandchildren, Love Soup and Woven Earth.
Trish said the group’s name came from her childhood, when all the aunties would sit yarning over a cup of tea, and that everything Yarnteeze members knitted now was “made with love and to bring dignity to those in need”.
The group meets every Tuesday morning at The Coffee Club in Ōrewa and members are aged from their forties to nineties.
Info: Zonta Club of Hibiscus Coast, KidsCanNZ, PetRefugeNZ and Yarnteeze pages on Facebook.
