The Rt Hon Helen Clark ONZ PC said this in response to a question put to her by former Labour party cabinet minster Winnie Laban, who had asked her about the role of religion in addressing the world's problems.

"Absolutely critical and I say that as a person of no faith whatsoever, but most people aren't like me. Most people to have some adherence to faith and so faith communities have enormous influence."

Clark spoke particularly of the influence of Pope Francis.

"You take a faith leader like the Pope. He has influence that transcends religion. I said to someone the other day, 'I am not a religious person but thank God for the Pope'."

Clark said it would be obvious she did not agree with everything the Pope said. In this regard she singled out sexual and reproductive health.

"But on the basic issues of poverty, climate, justice - this man is speaking for the hopes of so many."

Clark said the importance of working with faith leaders on the local, national and global level is well acknowledged across agencies such as the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Population Fund and UNICEF.

It is critical, she said, to have the local faith leaders involved in the issues of gender.

"In something like trying to stop female genital mutilation, cutting - to have faith leaders come out against that [practice] and back the women in the community who are obviously trying to trying to stop it, is just critical.

"It is extremely important to bring the faith leaders with us and engage with them so that their voice can be heard on these issues," she said.

Clark was taking part a conversation with Dr Gill Greer, at Te Papa on 29 June.

The Conversation was Broadcast on RNZ National on Sunday August 6.

Greer has been CEO of Volunteer Service Abroad since July 2012. She leaves the organisation this month.

From 2006-2011 Greer was the Director General of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).

Listen to the podcast

Source

• Transcript taken from RNZ podcast " Helen Clark in Conversation with Gilll Greer"
• Image: Amritapuri

So researchers say in the latest Briefing from the Department of Public Health at the University of Otago, Wellington.

They say the risk of developing dementia is 60 per cent higher for people living in New Zealand's most deprived areas compared to those in the least deprived.

Right now, our dementia rates are soaring, the Briefing says.

Dr ‘Etuini Ma'u and co-authors from the Department of Psychological Medicine at the University of Auckland saw that Maori and Pacific people are particularly at risk.

They are over-represented in the more disadvantaged areas of NZ society, Ma'u says.

Forty percent live in areas of high deprivation.

"These findings indicate that the higher risk and rates of dementia in Maori and Pacific peoples are not due to ethnicity per se but their over-representation in areas of high social disadvantage and poverty."

What to do

Prevention through broader population-level approaches, like policies addressing inequity, could significantly reduce the number of people with dementia, Ma'u says.

He says it's already known that the number of people living with dementia in NZ is expected to double in the next 20 years.

It will triple in the same period for Maori and Pacific peoples.

The recent Lancet Commission Report pointed to 14 risk factors for the disease Aa'u says. From this, we know good policy can change that trajectory.

Even by reducing 12 of the 14 risk factors by just 10 per cent could mean 3,000 fewer people get dementia.

"Most risk factors build up across a lifetime" he explains.

"It is their incremental and cumulative damage to the brain that eventually leads to dementia.

"This shows the importance of promoting brain health in early life and midlife, even when the immediate dementia risk is deemed to be low."

While individual behaviour changes are important, social policy should also play a role the Briefing authors say.

They would like to see effective policies and interventions to address the health inequities associated with poverty and social disadvantage.

Targeted legislative and public health measures to reduce the availability and marketing of alcohol, tobacco and unhealthy food would help.

"So would urban planning that promotes exercise and social connection" Ma'u says.

Source

• Sun Live

Extremely expensive

Last Thursday human rights organisation Lao Hamutuk told Union of Catholic Asian (UCA) News that the Government's budgeted US$12 million is out of line with the country's extreme poverty.

Among the provisions within the budget is an altar costing US$1 million.

A researcher at the Timor-Leste Institute for Development Monitoring and Analysis is concerned about the imbalance between the amount budgeted for the papal visit and the amount budgeted for food production.

Far from the millions the Government has set aside for the two-days Francis will spend in East Timor, it has earmarked only US$4.7 million to increase food production the researcher says.

Such a "really low" budget will contribute almost nothing to increasing East Timor's food production sustainability or to agricultural development.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation is concerned about the Southeast Asian country.

It says East Timor is facing major challenges in terms of food security.

In addition, the United Nations organisation says high inflation and weather changes have reduced grain production.

Right now, about 364,000 people (27 percent of the population) are currently suffering from acute food insecurity.

Families evicted

The location chosen for the papal Mass is also garnering criticism.

It will be held in Tasi-Tolu, an open area on the coast about eight kilometres from Dili - East Timor's capital city.

To create the space needed for the Mass, the Government has seized 23 hectares of land.

Human rights activists say the confiscation will displace the 185 families who live there.

A Land Network coordinator says the Government hasn't offered the families - who are all poor - any alternatives.

"They are still waiting for compensation" the coordinator told UCA News.

" The date of their eviction is constantly changing. The lives of these families are uncertain at the moment, they don't know where to go."

Catholic majority

Like the Philippines, East Timor has a Christian majority.

Almost 98 per cent of the population is Catholic.

About 700,000 of East Timor's 1.3 million population are expected to attend the papal Mass.

Source

• katholisch.de

With a proposed 15.1 percent household rates rise in the offing, Ripeka Lessels (pictured) spoke to the Kawerau District Council about her concerns.

She told the Council there are two leading drivers for the increase - increased staffing costs and additional staff needed for governance support, engineering, policy planning, solid waste, and finance administration.

"Are they absolutely necessary?" she asked.

"I ask this question as a school principal who makes these decisions all the time. Are they necessary? Can I do it differently? Can I do it better? Do I have the money to do that? What gives way?"

Increasing rates on top of increases in the cost of living would be "a double whammy for people already struggling" Lessels said.

She was one of several people who either spoke or wrote to the Council in response to its proposed rates.

Poverty rife in New Zealand

Lessels says she's never seen poverty in Kawerau the way it is today.

"I was a poor girl growing up. We were poor. We didn't have anything, but we were never poverty-stricken. We never had homelessness."

Poverty is rife all over the country she says.

She's sees this in her role as vice-president of the New Zealand Educational Institute trade union.

She sees it as deputy chair of the Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand.

"I see it across the schools that I deal with" she says.

Council reconsiders

Feedback showed 31 submitters said no to the increase, 23 agreed to it and five did not respond to the question.

The Council also asked whether people would be happy if they amended some levels of service to reduce the rates increase.

Of the 35 who suggested reductions in service, a range of cost-cutting measures were mentioned.

Charging for the town swimming pool, reducing rubbish collections and public gardens' costs, and Council organised events were some of these.

While most don't want to pay for the town's free swimming complex, one issued a grim warning.

He's concerned children will go swimming in the river instead, which could result in an increase in drownings.

Council's new plan

As upcoming legislative changes could significantly impact its budgets, the Council has opted to defer its long-term plan - and proposed rates rises - until next year.

Meantime, it is engaging with its community on an enhanced annual plan for the coming year.

"We never would have believed that in 2024 we would be living in those conditions" Mayor Faylene Tunui said.

The Council will deliberate on community feedback and is scheduled to adopt the final plan on June 26.

Source

• RNZ

The expectation from neighbours who are disturbed by poor behaviour is that Kainga Ora, or the police, or "government" in general, should "crack down hard" on those who ignore or defy the rules and normal conventions of good citizenship.

This might entail sanctions or evictions.

A couple of points here. I use "poor behaviour" advisedly because it arises from two forms of poverty, the first being relative financial poverty.

As Bob Marley sang: A hungry man is an angry man. Cost of living get so high, rich and poor they start to cry, they say, "Oh! What a tribulation."

The second (and, I would argue, more disabling) form of poverty, is poverty of spirit.

This arises when people feel they have no agency, no power to shape their lives and the circumstances of their wellbeing.

I appreciate that the political mood of the moment is to smash and bash the non-compliant.

But another (and more likely to be effective) approach might be to work with social housing tenants to describe, and then define, the social environment in which they want to live. It's called intentional community building.

Building Intentional Communities

I believe that one of the elements that confounds the successful utilisation of Aotearoa's social housing is the lack of intentional community building and the absence of attention to the social architecture of residential tenancies in social housing complexes.

What might that look like?

In 1973, as a community volunteer, I was the fieldworker for the Wellington Tenants Protection Association. We organised a rent strike against a Wellington rack-rent slumlord.

When we brought the tenants together, we discovered that, over and above the immediate concerns of their rents and tenancies, they were also facing issues of food security.

As they were already collaborating over the rent strike, it was a simple step to set up a food co-operative and to bring immediate relief to each whanau by providing affordable good-quality kai.

Moreover, in Newtown at least, we set up a community garden and established play groups and holiday programmes at the nearby community centre.

When people have a shared vision and a channel through which to co-operate, life becomes better. This is hardly rocket science.

Here's another lesson. In the late 1980s, I was awarded a Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Scholarship. I ended up working with the Easterhouse Festival in Glasgow, Scotland, an arts-based community-building programme.

Easterhouse is a suburb of Glasgow, and a housing project there was intended to be the solution to the poor tenement housing in the Gorbals, an area in the city of Glasgow on the south bank of the River Clyde.

By the late 19th century, the Gorbals had become densely populated with poor quality overcrowded housing. Poverty was commonplace and violence was endemic. In a word, the area was a slum.

After World War Two, a comprehensive slum clearance programme led to whanau from the Gorbals being relocated to Easterhouse.

Easterhouse is a physically isolated suburb six miles east of the city centre, poorly served by public transport and cut off by the M8 motorway that runs along its periphery. Sound familiar?

Because the social architecture was ignored, the whole effort was a disaster. Easterhouse became infamous as the worst place in Great Britain to live.

When I visited Easterhouse, tenants were housed in blocks of six flats, three stories either side of a common stairwell. The stairwell had become a pissoir. There was broken glass and dog-shit everywhere.

Despite the lofty ambitions of the planners and the noble intent of the politicians, this urban environment was riddled with poverty, poor infrastructure, shoddily-built and maintained housing, and a lack of local investment and employment opportunities.

In recent years, I've watched Kainga Ora's intensification of housing, particularly in Auckland, and more recently in Napier and Hastings.

Existing housing stock has been demolished and the classic quarter-acre sections on which one whare previously sat now feature two duplexes.

Four whanau now occupy the same area of land once occupied by one. Huge developments are planned, and housing minister Chris Bishop wants councils to make space more readily available.

But where's the evidence of the human planning — the social and interpersonal architecture, not just with the social housing tenants but with their neighbours and community?

I've been reminded of the spectre of Easterhouse and fear that we are about to repeat the same mistake.

I think I'm pretty much up with the play about what's possible in social housing. I chair the Waiohiki Community Charitable Trust.

We are a social housing provider, and, before Cyclone Gabrielle, we administered 14 social houses, predominantly in the context of papakainga. We're about a decade in.

Like my cousin Murphy, I'm a relentless optimist.

When we built our first papakainga, I thought that the provision of warm, dry, safe, housing at an affordable rent, and with security of tenure, would win the day.

Tenants would say: "Wow! How lucky we are. Let's look after this place and create a wonderful environment."

Not so. We had to cope with cuzzies who had city habits and weren't used to shared spaces. We had some with unacceptable behaviours who had to amend their ways and habilitate.

It wasn't easy, and in some instances, it was personally challenging and downright unpleasant.

But we prevailed. Now, post-cyclone, people are more appreciative.

The mara kai is pumping, we've planted hundreds of native trees, and those hedges that survived are trimmed and tidy. Tenants are proud of their environment, and it shows.

So, back to Kainga Ora. The housing need is great, and so are the social needs of our whanau.

Where to start

If we want to tackle domestic violence, sub-optimal childcare, abuse of intoxicants, be they licit or illicit, and dare I say it, gangs, then a good place to start is literally on the social housing whanau doorstep.

Ministers whose portfolios cover social housing, Chris Bishop and Tama Potaka, have an opportunity here.

They could choose to step away from the oppressive and alienating approach that this National-led coalition government seems determined to take around Maori and Pasifika issues by facilitating intentional community building.

Imagine gathering prospective tenants together before occupying a new housing estate, sharing a kai and having a korero about how they want to live together.

The same could be done with existing clusters of social housing tenants and their neighbours. Maybe involve social service providers.

We can move the community discussion away from complaining about problems to discussing solutions and opportunities — in other words, assist the shift from pathology to potential. It needn't be a complex process.

It's doable. So, let's have a crack at it, eh?

• Denis O'Reilly lives at Waiohiki in Hawke's Bay where he chairs the Waiohiki Community Charitable Trust. He is a writer, social activist and consultant.
• First published in E-Tangata. Republished with permission.

National poverty critical

St Vincent de Paul's Hamilton manager, Mike Rolton (pictured), says New Zealand is currently experiencing poverty on a level unknown in modern times.

"Six years ago we gave out 600 food parcels. Last year we did 6,000 parcels. This year we've forecast we'll do 7,000 parcels, so you can see the increase" he says.

Where in the past the public made donations to "Vinnies" Hamilton, that's dwindled as people can no longer afford it, Rolton says.

"We're using more of our own money to buy food. In the past we would have been lucky to spend $20,000 a year. Now we're spending about $100,000 a year on food to put in our parcels."

Doing it tough

One of the Hamilton families depending on Vinnies food parcels has a single mum.

She was left with eight dependent children five years ago after her partner was killed in a car accident.

Today she still has five children aged five to 17 at home.

"I have a budget of $100 ... I buy frozen vegetables, the cheapest meat ... and I try to get a bag of spuds each week which we ration out."

She is on a benefit and after $480 for her two-bedroom rental is gone, the power paid for and her $100 weekly family food budget spent, she's left with next to nothing.

"Tossing up between paying my rent or buying food is pretty much where I'm at" she says.

The Vinnies food parcels are essential - though a last resort.

"I don't see Vinnies every week as I don't want to abuse them. I try to use them every second week when something like the power bill comes in.

Her food parcels generally include canned food, pasta, long-life milk and a pack of mince.

"The ladies at the food bank are awesome. Every now and again I get some muffins. I take them home and it's a treat for my little ones."

Everyone's scraping the barrel

Vinnies Hamilton estimates that while half their food parcels go to beneficiaries, the other half go to people in paid employment. Rolton says Vinnies is seeing a growing number of people dropping from "middle class" to the "working poor".

"We're seeing a lot of workers who you wouldn't expect to be asking for help with food. But we've seen their budgets and they need help.

"A number of people working for government organisations are coming to us ... social workers may need help, working couples are coming in ... they're in tears when we give them parcels."

Children suffer

Child Poverty Action Group states one in eight Kiwi kids are living in material hardship.

This means they can't afford six or more basics including fresh food, heating, doctor's visits, car maintenance and unexpected bills.

Over a fifth of Maori children and a third of Pasifika children live in poverty.

The Group also says half of Kiwi kids in poverty are in households where parents work.

Source

• NewsHub

This kind of fasting has its place.

However, if you want to discover what fasting is especially meant to achieve, fast in a way that will bring about a holy change; change for the better for you, change for a better world.

A fast that will make a difference in helping build a better world, is a Christian witness that helps advance the Kingdom of God.

It is a fast that is evangelisation in action.

Let's take our inspiration from the prophet Isaiah:

"Is this not, rather, the fast that I choose: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the throngs of the yoke; setting free the oppressed, breaking off every yoke?

"Is it not sharing your bread with the hungry, bringing the afflicted and the homeless into your house; clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own flesh?"

This passage from Isaiah insists that we fast from what Pope Francis continually calls the "culture of indifference." A culture that doesn't care that there are fellow human beings among us who in one way, or another, are bound unjustly.

Countless people struggle daily to find sufficient food, clean water, decent shelter, adequate clothing and medical care.

Around the world many people are locked up in prisons for practising their faith in God, or for political, racial, ethnic reasons or for speaking out.

Others are unfairly imprisoned for minor offences.

Still, more, some 50 million people are bound up by human trafficking - modern slavery.

Then there are those who carry the heavy yoke of running from their native countries because of

• gang violence,
• war,
• desperate poverty,
• inhabitable climate change situations,
• corrupt regimes and
• greed, selfishness, and indifference.

These people seek safety and decent work somewhere, anywhere, in order to support themselves and their families, only to find that in coming to New Zealand they might part of an immigration scam run on social media or What'sApp.

Then there are the children, too little to fend for themselves, too weak to survive when times are tough.

They are often the first to die from hunger, poverty, disease, child labour, and that endless scourge: war!

The big fast, the uncomfortable fast

So, if you and I are ready for the big fast, which will often be uncomfortable and even painful at times, then we need to look no further than to the poor and vulnerable, near and far - our needy brothers and sisters.

Many wonderful organisations are dedicated to building peace, serving the poor, and protecting our common earth home. Link up with them and generously give of your time, talent and treasure this Lent - and beyond!

"If you lavish your food on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; then your light shall rise in the darkness, and your gloom shall become like midday!" (Isaiah 58: 6-10).

• Tony Magliano is an internationally syndicated Catholic social justice and peace columnist.

As illness prevented Francis from attending COP28, he deputed Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Parolin (pictured) to deliver his speech.

Francis, who has made defending the environment central to his papacy's social teaching, is the first Pope to address the Conference of the Parties (COP).

Lamenting the lack of progress in fighting climate change, he repeated appeals for multilateralism, calling the world to action. Divisions between people are preventing progress.

"The climate, run amok, is crying out to us to halt this illusion of omnipotence.

"The destruction of the environment is an offence against God, a sin that is not only personal but also structural."

It is a sin "that greatly endangers all human beings, especially the most vulnerable in our midst and threatens to unleash a conflict between generations.

"Are we working for a culture of life or a culture of death? To all of you, I make this heartfelt appeal: Let us choose life! Let us choose the future!"

Destructive fuels

Global leaders must end using coal, oil and gas, Parolin read on the Pope's behalf.

Embracing renewable energy would help, Francis wrote. This involves "the elimination of fossil fuels and education in less dependent lifestyles.

"Climate change signals the need for major political change. COP28 must be a turning point."

Francis's message resonated with COP28's growing political momentum regarding fossil fuel use - the main source of harmful global warming.

Human activity is responsible for greenhouse gas emissions, he said.

The obsessive drive for production has caused "an inordinate greed that has made the environment the object of unbridled exploitation".

There is some tension however between accepting fossil fuel's damaging effects and stopping their production and use.

For example COP28's president, Sultan Al-Jaber, is faced with supporting the ecological evidence showing the damage fossil fuels are wreaking on the environment, contrary to his personal business interests.

Phasing out these fuels is "inevitable" he says - even though the oil company he runs has embarked on a major expansion of production.

User pays for poor

Blaming the world's ecological and climate crises on the poor and saying high birth rates are the main problem is unfair, Francis said. The biggest carbon-emitting countries are "responsible for a deeply troubling ecological debt".

It would be fair for these countries to cancel poor nations' financial debts, Parolin read. These debts exist only because of big carbon-emitting countries' excessive use of fossil fuels.

Cafod* responds

"The Pope's message is very well timed as we move into discussions on a global stocktake at COP28" says the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development*.

Leaders must heed his call "not for a partial change, but a new way of making progress together, and for choosing a culture of life over a culture of death."

Source

• BBC
• Crux Now
• Reuters
• Vatican
• CNA

More than that, it is rumored that charitable organisations that supply tents to the homeless might themselves be prosecuted for their generosity.

What have we come to? Is this the latest phase in the "don't drop litter campaign"?

Some ten years ago the Canadian sculptor, Timothy Schalz, gave us "Homeless Jesus" .

It depicted a huddled Christ lying on a park bench wrapped in a cloak identified only by his exposed feet bearing the marks of crucifixion - stark and chilling image of those whom society chooses to ignore until they become inconvenient.

By 2016, over 100 casts had been placed in various public places worldwide. And the list continues. Each day people walk by, some sit near the exposed feet, bowing their heads in prayer.

The destitution of Jesus is no more apparent than in Matthew's Gospel where he writes: "And Jesus said to him, 'Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head'."

Poverty, unemployment, natural disasters and wars

Homelessness has numerous causes, many of them arising from the careless and selfish attitudes of our society.

One cause is poverty and the lack of a regular income to cover one's rent or mortgage. Some who are employed earn a wage or salary that is insufficient to meet their needs.

Too often, we are critical of outcome and ignore the root of the evident problem. As long as all is tidy and presentable, we ask no further questions.

So, we end up with a divided society, with those who have enough overtly critical of those with insufficient means to meet their basic needs.

Natural disaster, earthquake and flood can take away homes leaving whole communities without shelter and the means to feed themselves.

For a few days they are headline news, that is until something else happens and the story fades. But the problem of their survival remains.

Another cause of poverty is war between nations.

You have only to look at the graphic images of the destruction wrought on Gaza City to realize the huge material cost of repairing or replacing homes and businesses when all this over. Meanwhile, families must live amongst the rubble, the debris that once they called home.

Home is more than a collection of rooms

One of the most memorable tracks on Paul Simon's 1986 album Gracelands is the song "Homeless", which and Black Mambazo sing in English and Zulu.

The haunting melody echoes the tragedy of the loss of home and the loneliness of night after a storm

Homeless, homeless
Moonlight sleeping on a midnight lake
Homeless, homeless
Moonlight sleeping on a midnight lake
We are homeless, we are homeless
The moonlight sleeping on a midnight lake
And we are homeless, homeless, homeless
The moonlight sleeping on a midnight lake…..

……Strong wind destroy our home
Many dead, tonight it could be you
Strong wind, strong wind
Many dead, tonight it could be you.

But home is more than a collection of rooms. It is a place of family identity where meals are shared and stories told. It is a place of security for children, where the care of parents can be relied on.

That is what makes the loss of a home so poignant and the consequences so hard to bear.

If the Home Secretary thinks that is a lifestyle choice, so be it. I beg to differ from her point of view.

• Chris McDonnell is a retired headteacher from England and a regular contributor to La Croix International.
• First published in La Croix. Republished with permission.

The modernisation seeks to fill a twenty-six-year gap and reflect some of the modern challenges.

Dr John Kleinsman, director of the NZ Catholic bishops' Nathaniel Centre for Bioethics, is delighted with the bishops' update.

Kleinsman describes the new document as a "succinct overview of eight key moral areas, including a new section on information technology and artificial intelligence."

Among the modern challenges the bishops consider

• Information technology and artificial intelligence
• Justice and correction systems
• War and peace
• Poverty
• Discrimination and abuse
• End-of-life issues
• Beginning of life issues
• Integrity of Creation

Kleinsman says that people generally know what the Chucrh teaches but are unsure of why.

Te Kahu o te Ora - A Consistent Ethic of Life summarises key points which can give people greater insights into Catholic thinking, comments Kleinsman.

"It is a great source for open and informed discussions", says Kleinsman who, as well as being a theologian, is a married man, father and grandfather.

The original Te Kahu o te Ora was inspired by Cardinal Joseph Bernardin's A Consistent Ethic of Life.

Bernardin's work grew from his observation that we must act consistently because all human life is sacred.

It was Bernadin's view that it was inconsistent to protect life in some situations but not in others.

In the years following Roe v. Wade, Bernardin argued that human life is always valuable and must be respected consistently from conception to natural death.

Being pro-life is not only about abortion or euthanasia.

Being pro-life must encompass war, poverty, access to health care, education and anything that threatens human life or human wellbeing, he argued.

Stephen Lowe, the Bishop of Auckland, the Apostolic Administrator of Hamilton and President of the NZ Catholic Bishops Conference, describes the update as "Opportune".

Lowe says human life and emerging challenges are interconnected.

"The essence of Te Kahu o te Ora is the interconnectedness of all life, from the womb to the Earth," he said.

Lowe says Pope Benedict put it well some years ago:

"There are so many kinds of desert. There is the desert of poverty, the desert of hunger and thirst, the desert of abandonment, of loneliness, of destroyed love. There is the desert of God's darkness, the emptiness of souls no longer aware of their dignity or the goal of human life. The external deserts in the world are growing, because the internal deserts have become so vast."

"While traditional human life issues continue to need our attention, we are now facing many new problems, all interlinked.

"The key message of Te Kahu o te Ora is that everything is connected, whether it is life in the womb or the life of the Earth," Lowe repeated.

Sources

• Supplied
• Catholic Sun

The fires and floods in the Northern Hemisphere have emphasised the threat of climate change to people's lives throughout the world.

They foreshadow the future.

Less dramatically the gradual unrolling of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has also revealed its threat to the livelihood of many white collar workers and its potential for blurring the distinction between reality and illusion.

It is one of many developments in technology with the potential to reshape human life. Experience tells us that any negative effects will fall most heavily on people on the edges of society.

For that reason those concerned with building a more just society will need to reflect more deeply and broadly on social justice.

The Catholic Church, among many other institutions, has a long tradition of such reflection, having responded initially to the world shaped by the French and the Industrial Revolutions.

The latter and the laissez faire economic assumptions that accompanied it disempowered and alienated workers and disrupted their personal and religious relationships.

Like others, Catholic thinkers worked to advocate for just economic and political relationships between workers, employers and governments asking how they ought to be shaped if they are to contribute to decent human living.

Climate change: a new threat to human flourishing

The reach of reflection on social justice then expanded to meet new situations and ideologies.

Increasingly devastating wars, economic depression, the rise of totalitarian regimes, the challenge of preserving peace, decolonisation, population growth, inequality and neo-liberal economic assumptions have all involved complex changes in social and economic relationships.

They have demanded constant reflection to ensure that people who are most disadvantaged are protected and supported.

Under Pope Francis, the scope of Catholic reflection on Social Justice has expanded beyond the focus on the economy, migration and war to include the environment.

It responded to the threat of climate change.

The development recognizes that human beings can flourish only if our personal and institutional relationships to the environment of which we are part are respectful.

For this reason any commitment to social justice through policies and programmes needs to take into account the effects of climatic change on people who are disadvantaged.

This expansion of social justice to include the environment has prompted the adoption of the term Integral Justice.

The threat of climate change, however, is of a different order than the previous challenges to human flourishing.

Threatening human relationships and future generations

In the first place, if it is unchecked it will threaten the delicate network of relationships that constitute our human environment, and as a result will threaten human life as we know it.

It is a crisis that extends beyond the shape of relationships between human beings to affect their very possibility.

It is therefore integral to reflection on the justice of all those relationships. As with other sets of social relationships people living on the margins will be the canaries in the mine.

Second, the decisions and social structures which we now implement or neglect to make in response to climate change will inevitably and irrevocably shape the lives of our descendants.

If we put our profit and comfort above reducing emissions our children and grandchildren will pay the price.

Thinking about social justice and the relationships between social groups then needs to think about the effect of what we do on future generations and especially on the marginalised. Social justice must also be intergenerational.

The urgency of the challenge of climate change may seem to be far higher than that posed by the initial development of Artificial Intelligence. Appearances, however, are illusory.

Public concern about AI has so far focused on its economic effect on employment in industry, planning, in creative work and in publications.

It may also affect human flourishing, however, through its effect on planning and implementing ideas, on physical presence to others in work and in recreation, and on the privatisation of truth.

When it is joined to the project of a metaverse in which brains are adapted to computers in a virtual world of the user's choice, the pressures on people who are marginalized will be incalculable.

Society's disadvantaged will be increasingly vulnerable

AI is only one of many technologies with the potential to affect human flourishing. Advances in genetic and nano technology also have the potential to alter human lives according to our choice.

We can imagine the power of genetic engineering to prevent hereditary illnesses, to create designer babies, to create human beings and hybrids in a laboratory and to introduce genetic modifications into human beings with incalculable results.

All these developments, and the profit that stands to be made by the large companies which fund them, pose important questions about what it means for us to be social beings accountable to one another.

Communal reflection and regulation of these developments, which have potential for good as well as for harm, are threatened both by massive inequality that enables those who develop the technologies to do so for further profit and also by a popular culture that privileges individual choice over the common good.

In such a world, people who are disadvantaged will be increasingly vulnerable to deprivation of agency, of sociality and to be seen as objects to be dealt with by new technologies.

For this reason, reflection on social justice must include in its remit the effects of new technologies on persons and their economic, political and environmental relationships. Read more

• Andrew Hamilton SJ is writer at Jesuit Social Services in Melbourne (Australia) and consulting editor of Eureka Street.
• First published at Eureka Street. Republished with author's permission.

But to his dismay, the Portuguese embassy returned his passport without a visa July 24, making him one of a rising number of people prevented from travelling to Lisbon for the world's largest Catholic youth event.

Along with his passport, Javed received a Portuguese form with a box ticked indicating that the authorities considered the reasons for the trip unreliable.

In other words, they were not convinced he would return home after the Aug. 1-6 gathering.

In a video sent to The Pillar July 26, Javed said that his wife had dreamed of receiving a blessing from Pope Francis as the couple married in 2017 but are yet to have children.

"She said that if we get the blessing from the pope, and we will see the pope, maybe God will bless us," the 32-year-old from the city of Sargodha said.

"She has faith that God will bless us."

Javed explained that after hearing about World Youth Day, the couple gathered all the documents required for a visa application, despite the difficulty of doing so.

Visa decisions are made by representatives of the Portuguese government and are made separately from the registration process for WYD, which the WYD Lisbon 2023 Foundation oversees.

Portugal, a member of the European Union and part of the border-free Schengen Area, has reinstated documentary border controls until the end of WYD, "to safeguard possible threats to public order and internal security" associated with a papal visit. Pope Francis is due to visit the country on Aug. 2-6.

Pilgrims have overstayed their visas at previous WYDs.

Australian media reported that out of the 110,000 people who attended WYD in Sydney in July 2008, 550 did not return home.

By September 2019, 280 pilgrims remained "on the run." Most were from South Pacific countries including Tonga, Fiji and Samoa, with the remainder from India, Pakistan, and Vietnam.

Ahead of WYD in Madrid in 2011, the Spanish authorities suspended visas from Pakistan.

"Many people from this country have tried to stay in Europe after past WYD celebrations as illegal immigrants, that's why the Spanish government has suspended the granting of visas," a spokesman for the event's organizers said at the time.

WYD Lisbon 2023's official website says that the meeting is "aimed at pilgrims from all over the world between the ages of 14 and 30, but pilgrims of other ages are welcome to register."

It also explains that "it is the responsibility of each WYD participant to obtain a visa."

Each person who registers receives a personalised letter of confirmation, which is then signed by their diocesan bishop and forms the basis for their visa application.

Archbishop Joseph Arshad of Islamabad-Rawalpindi signed Javed's registration document.

In March, WYD organizers acknowledged that a group of 10 people with whom Javed and his wife intended to travel had paid the almost $2,500 contribution required for a package including accommodation, meals, transport, insurance, and a pilgrim kit.

The group also donated more than $100 to a solidarity fund that covers the participation costs for "young people coming from less fortunate parts of the world."

"We provided all the documents as they required, but they didn't issue us a visa," Javed said.

"My question is why they didn't issue us a visa. Because we are poor?"

Portugal's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Pakistan was named the world's seventh most difficult country in which to be a Christian by the advocacy group Open Doors in its World Watch List 2023.

The organisation said that the nation's Christians — who comprise around 1.8 percent of the almost 250 million population — "are considered second-class citizens and face discrimination in every aspect of life."

Javed, who has struggled financially since the coronavirus crisis, told The Pillar that he had two jobs, bringing in an income of around $90 a month.

He said he had heard that a few applicants from Pakistan with stable, well-paying jobs had received visas.

"We don't have much money … So that's why they didn't give us a visa. So is this event for rich people only? And what about the poor, what about us?" he asked.

"And if they want to do this with us, they should mention on the website that World Youth Day is for rich people only, so the poor people can't apply and can't waste their money and their time, their emotions." Read more

• Luke Coppen is The Pillar's Senior Correspondent. He edited the U.K. Catholic Herald from 2004 to 2020 and was Europe editor of the Catholic News Agency from 2020 to 2022.

It's almost impossible to know, exactly, how many people sleep in cars. "None", would be the best answer. But this isn't a "best answer" world.

One measure is how many people on the Housing Register (essentially a waiting list of people assessed as eligible for public housing, but not yet in it) give their address as a car.

How many applicants for public housing, Chris Bishop asked, indicated they were living in a car in June 2023, compared with October 2017?

Priyanca Radhakrishnan answered that in June 2023. "There were 480 applicants who put ‘car' down as their accomodation type, compared to 102 in October 2017."

"I refuse to stand by while children are sleeping in cars", Jacinda Ardern said, in the 1 News Leaders' Debate, pre-election in 2017.

It was one of those memorable lines that contained a zeitgeist fury. Back then, sleeping in cars was evidence of the kind of failure that defines a Government.

Now? It gets less attention.

Some of this is down to a paradox. The Housing Register has grown because it has some meaning.

In her answer to Chris Bishop's question, Associate Minister Radhakrishnan reminded us: "This Government has added 12,198 net additional public homes, as compared to that member's Government who left us with 1,500 public homes fewer compared to when they took office."

People who listed 'car' as their accommodation in New Zealand went from 102 in October 2017 to 480 in June 2023. (Source: 1News)

Yes. You only join a queue when you believe it's leading somewhere. Albeit slowly. Besides, the previous National Government appeared to get its State housing policy from Humpty Dumpty.

This is a recurring theme in Labour's response when National attacks its provision and management of public housing.

Housing Minister, Megan Woods, responding to Nicola Willis in 2021, brandished the derisory "they" for National's performance when in Government. A finger-wagging "they".

"They finished Government with 1,500 fewer houses than they started with. If they'd built at even our minimum level of 1,600 houses a year, we would have had 15,000 more public houses in New Zealand."

Fair point.

But Chris Bishop's point is also fair. And important. And if Labour and its supporters were appalled by people sleeping in cars in 2017, surely they'll be appalled by it now?

Won't they? Judging by Twitter traffic - maybe not.

An interesting thing happened on Friday morning.

Bernard Hickey tweeted out the same link to the Parliamentary exchange between Chris Bishop and Priyanca Radhakrishnan that I've attached (above), with an accompanying twelve-word commentary: "This says it all. As the rain comes down. And it's cold."

Had it been 2017, and had National been in power, this would likely have had so many retweets it would have got dizzy. But in the twelve hours that followed it going up, it was retweeted only once. Once. By the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG).

CPAG didn't hold back.

"Touché @bernardchickey", their tweet commenced, ending: "The state of the nation can be summed up in this headline. The children living in cars are not included in @Stats_NZ child poverty data. Abhorrent, outrageous, unacceptable."

Take that!

But no-one did. CPAG, whose commitment to addressing child poverty is rigorous, intelligent and admirably non-partisan, weren't retweeted at all in the following twelve hours.

That despite the excellently Twitter baiting fodder of those three furious words: "Abhorrent, outrageous, unacceptable."

Not even National supporters went near it.

Hundreds of people are living in cars in New Zealand - but does that matter to Kiwis this election?

Indeed, if you go to National's website, there's no mention whatsoever of the information Chris Bishop elicited from Priyanca Radhakrishnan in Parliament on Thursday afternoon.

Instead, as I write this, National's issue of the moment (and obviously their website is constantly updated) is crime.

Yes, a third of National's front twelve "press releases" at the close of the week were on crime, with ram raids mentioned nine times.

Imagine, the power if National had linked the impacts of a childhood in which economic deprivation was so great that their "home" was a car, with the tragically increased likelihood of criminality.

The link is established. Starkly.

"Children born into poverty more likely to become criminals", RNZ headlined a story in 2018, reporting on research by the Ministry of Social Development.

The then Children's Commissioner, and former principal judge of the country's Youth Court, Andrew Becroft, is quoted. "He said children suffering from material hardship were more likely to end up with a poor education and in crime when they grew up."

Yes.

"We know that long-term education is going to be a challenge", Andrew Becroft is reported as saying.

"We know that they are, the kids, especially the boys, are at risk of criminal offending. So this isn't just a theoretical issue, this [has] significant life ramifications."

And here we are. Five years later. Living with them. Continue reading

• John Campbell is TVNZ's Chief Correspondent.

As food inflation hits a 36-year high and fuel costs go back up, working families are having to juggle between bills, while kids are going to school hungry and underdressed for winter.

Charity KidsCan helps schools feed and dress their students and said this has been the worst winter ever, with 10,000 more children per day needing support and lower donations due to the high cost of living. Read more

The current conflict is instead an acute symptom of a crisis that has plagued the country for decades.

The people of Sudan have been suffering for far too long from political turmoil and economic instability.

The escalating humanitarian needs have left many Sudanese in "survival mode".

Last year alone, humanitarian needs reached their highest levels in a decade, with violent conflict and food insecurity among the many challenges people have been facing, while significant flooding hinted at the country's vulnerability to rapidly changing climate patterns.

The situation was further worsened by the surge in fighting between armed groups in Darfur, Kordofan and Blue Nile states, which displaced more than 3 million people, almost 2.5 million in Darfur alone.

Meanwhile, Sudan also hosted more than one million refugees from neighbours such as South Sudan and Ethiopia, who themselves fled violence only to find themselves stuck in another conflict further affecting their ability to cope with their escape from misery and death.

Shortages of food, water, medicines and fuel

Before the current conflict, the alarm had already been raised about the critical needs of people in West Darfur, and emphasising the urgency of scaling up the humanitarian response to the already fragile healthcare system.

Now, we have witnessed first-hand the collapse of the health system and fast-growing levels of medical and humanitarian need across the country, placing great numbers of people in a life-threatening situation.

The United Nations estimates a 57 per cent increase in needs since December 2022.

Since 15 April, people in Khartoum and other states have suffered due to heavy fighting, airstrikes and mass looting.

Another wave of displacement of 1.4 million civilians is being reported as newly displaced, with women and children particularly affected.

The current violence has led to shortages of food, water, medicines and fuel, causing prices to surge and making it increasingly difficult for people to access medical care at a time when they need it most.

In Khartoum, El Geneina, Zalingei and other cities and towns where heavy fighting continues, people remain trapped, while hundreds of thousands have been fleeing to safer areas of the country or across borders.

Despite immense obstacles, agencies like MSF remain determined to support the people of Sudan to the best of our ability, providing critical healthcare to those in desperate need.

Our teams are currently active in 10 states in Sudan, involved in various activities, such as treating war-wounded individuals in Khartoum and North Darfur; providing healthcare and water and sanitation services to refugees, displaced people, and local communities in Al-Gedaref and Al-Jazeera states; and donating medical supplies to healthcare facilities across Sudan.

Concerted attacks on healthcare facilities

However, there has been a pattern of attacks on healthcare facilities and disregard for civilian lives that has made it increasingly difficult to deliver vital healthcare services during this critical time.

For instance, in Nyala, south Darfur, we were forced to suspend activities after one of our compounds and warehouses were violently looted on 16 April.

In Khartoum, another warehouse was also looted and occupied, with medical supplies, fuel and vehicles stolen.

Fridges were unplugged and medicines left exposed and, on the floor, meaning they can no longer be used.

On 26 April, the El Geneina Teaching Hospital (where MSF managed the pediatric and nutrition departments) was also looted, with parts of the hospital damaged or destroyed.

The hospital remains closed following the attack.

The theft of supplies and vehicles, harassment of medical personnel, and the proximity of violence to healthcare facilities and infrastructure collectively impede the efforts of medical and humanitarian workers in responding effectively to the dire situation.

These attacks are not isolated incidents.

Rather, they are indicative of a broader pattern where warring parties show a disregard for civilian lives, infrastructure, and healthcare facilities.

This trend poses a serious threat to the provision of essential healthcare services and exacerbates the already challenging conditions the affected population faces.

Administrative and logistical challenges are also impeding the medical activities of Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

Moving supplies from one part of Sudan to another can be extremely difficult.

Similarly, although MSF was able to bring emergency teams into Sudan during the first weeks of the conflict, obtaining permission for them to travel to project locations or securing visas for additional staff has been challenging.

How can we possibly continue carrying out our activities without an acceptable level of protection for our staff and for the people unable to reach medical facilities due to constant threats and obtaining a level of accessibility of our supplies and teams to move and deliver aid?

We cannot stand by as people are put at risk

From our humanitarian experience in conflict zones, we know the scale of danger that conflict poses to civilians who cannot or choose not to evacuate, including medical staff who remain to provide care to the sick and wounded.

Parties to the conflict must take all necessary measures to protect civilians from harm and ensure that those who are sick, wounded, or in dire need of medical support have access to healthcare facilities.

As I pen my closing words, I can't help but wonder how many lives that should have been spared are being lost at this very moment.

In the face of ongoing conflict and attacks on healthcare in various locations, it is imperative to ensure the safety of medical personnel and health facilities to ensure effective healthcare delivery.

This entails enabling safe passage for ambulances and individuals seeking medical assistance and facilitating access and rapid and unimpeded movement for humanitarian workers, organizations, and supplies to go where they are needed.

Too many lives are hanging in the balance, and we cannot stand by as people are put at risk. It is vital that civilians affected by the fighting are afforded access to emergency healthcare.

• Stephen Cornish is General Director of Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Geneva, Switzerland. Republished from La Croix International.

Working families are among the growing number lining up for help as the cost of living and inflation bubble upwards.

Food shortages are hitting food banks too.

Like "Mother Hubbard", who went to the cupboard, North Island foodbank staff are finding bare pantries.

People are generous but can't afford to donate as they did in the past - they just don't have the means.

Less food, fewer parcels

Aotearoa Food Parcel Measure indicates that the nationwide number of food parcels distributed in March was 3422 fewer than at the start of the year.

"We're having to really tighten the budget and be really careful with our purchasing, we're mindful that we're in a position of reasonable stability for a charitable organisation," says Tauranga Community Foodbank manager Nicki Goodwin.

Urban marae are also trying to fill their communities' pantries. They are cash-strapped too.

Papakura Marae's Tony Kake says his marae's foodbank is struggling to feed everyone asking for help. They give out about 300 food parcels per week. About 75 percent of the whanau they help are regulars - but anyone who needs help is welcome, he says.

Where to from here?

Any idea that last week's budget would help has died.

In a statement commenting on the 2023 Budget, the Auckland Catholic Diocese Justice and Peace Commission says there is little bread-and-butter support for those in most need and very little to alleviate intergenerational family poverty.

The Commission said that implementing the May 2019 Welfare Expert Advisory Group's key recommendation to substantially increase basic Social Welfare payments so that families can support themselves continues to be ignored.

"And the promised relief for families in the face of rising costs seems to be completely missing in action.

"What sort of society are we when 71 billion dollars can be found for very necessary infrastructure but only scraps of funding for families who are so overwhelmed by rising food and rent costs, they are being forced to choose between paying the rent to avoid homelessness and feeding hungry children?"

The Commission thinks a more focused approach to providing support would help.

There needs to be a solid plan in place, moving ahead, "rather than just a reactive, here's an extra $10 a week" the Commission said.

Helen Robinson, Chair of Kore Hiakai Zero Hunger Collective and Manutaki at the Auckland City Mission, says local government and local food plans need to be at the heart of the response, while being connected to a National Food Strategy.

This would mean our domestic and export food systems are in concert with each other.

Robinson's basing her views on a report the Collective has just released. Called 'Realising Food Secure Communities in Aotearoa: a review of locally led reports, plans and strategies', it shows us that we know how to do this, and that we can, she says.

It spotlight ways mana whenua, local communities, councils and central government can work together.

When working in partnership, together we can build food secure communities, Robinson says.

Source

• RNZ
• NZ Herald
• Voxy
• Supplied - Justice and Peace Commission

Consumer NZ, with support from Te Manatu Waka-Ministry of Transport, decided to investigate to see if these suggestions were true.

They assessed fuel use in five PHEVs and five hybrids from five brands, the subsequent Consumer magazine report says.

Their aim was to see how real-world fuel consumption compares with the manufacturers' claims.

"While it's a small sample, it has generated some useful insights," Consumer says.

Manufacturers' fuel efficiency figures come from laboratory tests conducted under controlled settings, they point out.

"However, in reality, fuel efficiency is likely to be lower - and lower still if you don't drive with efficiency in mind."

Crucial info

Consumer notes that in New Zealand, the Clean Car Discount Scheme uses the published fuel use to calculate fees and rebates for each car.

Having the fees and rebates set to the right level is crucial for encouraging people into the right sort of vehicles.

"We also tested the real-world fuel efficiency of hybrids, PHEVs and electric vehicles (EVs) in 2020.

"We uncovered that the price of running a Hyundai Ioniq PHEV for a week compared very similarly to the hybrid version.

"It was a surprising result - we expected the PHEV cost to be much lower," Consumer says.

Consumer's real world test

"Each vehicle we trial gets the same treatment: a week of commuting in rush hour from Lower Hutt to Consumer HQ (a round trip of 28km); a run to the supermarket; and a drive over the Remutaka Hill and back to see how it goes on a longer weekend trip. In total, one week's usage makes for about 270km of motoring.

"We record fuel use (both actual and on the trip computer) and measure electricity usage where appropriate, with PHEVs.

"The actual fuel use is measured by filling the tank to the brim at the start of the trial and then again at the end, and comparing numbers.

"It's an inexact science that doesn't use any specialist or calibrated equipment, but it's still a repeatable, real-world appraisal."

Drawing some conclusions

Consumer says a summary of their findings shows:

• PHEVs averaged 45 percent over their claimed fuel use on their trip computers and 73 percent over with the fuel measured at the pump.
• Hybrids averaged 10 percent over their claimed fuel use on their trip computers and 20 percent over with the fuel measured at the pump

Although Consumer has included a chart showing numerous vehicles' percentage difference from claimed fuel usage, it's urging readers to treat them with caution.

"It's important not to sensationalise those figures - it's not robust science," Consumer says.

"Rather, it's real-world driving with the percent gains blown out by the small numbers in the PHEV claims.

"Even so, it is quite telling in our sample that the figures were much higher than claimed."

Source

• Consumer magazine

These pressures are hitting people from several directions.

The report points to the escalating cost of living, increased household debt, lack of affordable housing and worsening education outcomes. It notes ever more young people are reporting psychological distress.

The State of the Nation report pulls together existing data to provide an annual snapshot of our social progress as a nation.

"The report acknowledges the very real pressures that are increasingly and significantly affecting people's lives as inflation begins to bite and people struggle to feed their whanau, to find work and secure warm, dry affordable accommodation," the Salvation Army's Lt Colonel Ian Hutson says.

He notes the employment market remains "disturbingly ineffective" at finding work for young people, Maori and Pasifika people.

Last September, the unemployment rate was more than twice as high for Maori (6.8%) and Pasifika workers (6.4%) than Asian and European workers.

Financial disparity is also clear, with one in five Pacific households reporting having not enough money.

Maori households were twice as likely as European or Asian households to be trying to survive on insufficient resources.

That adds pressure on those people's lives in particular. "The lowest income households are among the hardest hit," Hutson says.

Our social wellbeing is not just about money either. There are other pressure too - again especially negatively affecting Maori and Pasifika people.

The Sallies' research found about a fifth of rangatahi Maori aged 15 to 24 years were not in employment, education or training.

That's over twice the non-Maori rate.

Alcohol consumption is at hazardous levels for one third of Maori.

The Sallies hint that there's a broader collective set of costs a society needs to take into account. These need to support people to live fulfilled lives - and avoid the very real social and economic costs of inequality.

They hope the election year will find political leaders taking action to address social disparities and support communities to meet the ‘costs of living'.

While child poverty and hardship have been reducing, child poverty rates are still high - especially Maori and Pasifika children.

The proportion of young people aged 15 to 24 years are reporting high levels of psychological distress. Education outcomes have worsened. School attendance rates have declined.

For some, housing has improved, but the rental market remains tight and in general rents have steadily increased.

Worryingly, average household debt — driven by housing debt along with consumer and credit card debt — has increased to its highest level in more than 15 years.

The report also notes crime and punishment has increased in the past year, although the number of alleged offenders and proceedings against them by police declined significantly. Pandemic-related backlogs and increased jury trials contributed to the highest proportion ever of people on remand - 41 percent.

Positive outcomes

Fortunately, the report's findings aren't all negative.

Hazardous drinking has declined in general; cannabis and methamphetamine convictions have declined; and people are withdrawing their KiwiSaver savings for hardship reasons.

Maori are seeing improvements in some areas: a sharp reduction in the Maori infant mortality rate and a reduction in the large gap between offending rates for rangatahi Maori and non-Maori.

There's also been an increase in the proportion of Maori who report being able to speak more than a few words and phrases in te reo.

Source

• Stuff
• Salvation Army
• Salvation Army
• Salvation Army

It followed a decade of unprecedented economic growth and poverty reduction in Cambodia.

At that time, the global economy was experiencing strong growth rates.

The report "Toward A More Inclusive and Resilient Cambodia" notes Cambodia's poverty rate fell by almost half - from 33.8 percent to 17.8 percent - between 2009 and 2019.

Almost two million Cambodians escaped poverty.

The pandemic reversed this. Cambodia's poverty reduction progress and the poverty rate has since increased by 2.8 percentage points.

This means around 460,000 people have fallen below the poverty income threshold.

"Efforts to accelerate Cambodia's structural transformation have helped reduce poverty," said Maryam Salim, the World Bank's Country Manager for Cambodia.

"However, despite this impressive success, many households remained vulnerable, with few savings or safety nets. This meant Covid-19 dealt a setback [to] the country's progress in combating poverty as employment and wages diminished."

Cambodia has recently redefined the poverty line.

It now uses the most recent Cambodia Socio-Economic Survey for 2019/20, the World Bank says. The national poverty line fluctuates. Currently, it is the equivalent of US$2.15 per person per day.

An exodus of Western businesses has exacerbated the Cambodian economic hardships. Their departure followed a government crackdown on opposition political parties, the media, unions, and NGOs initiated in 2017.

Chinese investment and generosity emerged as the most significant foreign contributor to the national economy. That, too, faded as the pandemic took hold.

The World Bank says during Cambodia's decade-long growth phase, "rising non-farm earnings, for example in the tourism, garment and construction sectors, contributed most to poverty reduction."

At the same time, trade and investment-led growth supported a structural transformation in Cambodia's economy. Workers moved out of low-paying agriculture jobs and boosted their earnings. More productive sectors followed, creating better-paid manufacturing and services jobs for Cambodians.

"At the same time, living conditions and access to basic services such as electricity, water supply, sanitation, health and education improved for broad segments of the population. This improvement has narrowed standard-of-living gaps between rural and urban households," the report says.

As the economy tanked, Cambodia was widely praised for a swift roll-out of its Covid-19 vaccination programme. It was one of the first countries in Southeast Asia to ease pandemic travel restrictions and open up its borders.

The World Bank said Cambodia could consider a range of policy actions to support a more inclusive and resilient recovery from the pandemic and the economic shocks that have come with it.

"These include targeted cash transfers, steps to strengthening social protection, investments in health and education," the report says.

Source

• UCA News
• World Bank

"Going through poverty as a kid you feel invisible - like no one sees you and no one cares about you."

Brogden says often people don't want to acknowledge disadvantaged children exist. They're trying to pretend there's no such thing as poor people, she explains.

The problem is, it makes those children feel like they're "not worth much".

Brogden says she wants to be a voice for "kids in poverty".

"Not enough of us speak out about living through it, so then we're just thought of as statistics. And it's easier to ignore it, and to pretend it's not happening.

"But real children are suffering. I want people to see my face, because if I can help people become more aware of the issue, if I can help children out of the position I was in, it means I didn't suffer for nothing."

Living in poverty means you are always in survival mode, trying to figure out how you're going to get your next meal. You're hungry.

"We survived on $1 loaves of bread, noodles and cheap junk food. Once my sister made me a birthday cake from a stack of dry Weet-Bix with icing poured on top."

"You know you're different from everyone else. You get bullied because you don't look the same. You're a bit scruffy, a bit smelly from not being able to wash as often. Your clothes won't be as new and as expensive as other kids. Your teeth are bad. It's pretty lonely."

Feelings of fear and uncertainty were coupled with moving a lot and horrible environments.

"We'd get sick. We never had other kids over because it was so bad."

School was Brogden's safe space.

"It was warm, and there was power. And I knew I was always going to be fed. Sometimes the only food I'd get a day would be at school."

She was also given her first pair of brand-new shoes at school. KidsCan provided them.

"It's extremely hard to escape the cycle of poverty. It feels like the system traps you in it," Brogden says.

Moving to live with an aunt changed her life. For the first time she had constant meals, a roof over her head and a stable education.

She flourished.

She ran a full marathon. Was head girl of her school. Went to Youth Parliament and to Fiji on a future leader's programme.

Is now at university in her third year studying politics.

She's pleased she's a KidsCan ambassador. The New Zealand charity provides food, shoes and clothing to schools and early childhood centres.

She'd like to be a politician.

If she were, she'd "implement a minimum standard of living for children, across all aspects of their life, like housing, food quality, and education."

"Every child deserves the chance that I've had."