Martha | Māngere

“My name’s Martha, and I live in Māngere just down the road.

Probably when kids get trapped in a cycle, so their parents are gang members or don’t have enough money, and their parents pulled them out of school, and I just wonder how kids are going to get out of the cycle and become good members themselves. Just giving opportunities I suppose to people that don’t have any.

Well, I grew up in Albany, on the Shore. I moved here about four months ago, and it’s just been pretty cruisy. I’ve got a nice family, I love animals, I’m quite a spiritual person. I like kindness, you know, just for everyone, unconditionally.

My friend recently became a Police member and told me about a house call he went to, and it was about this girl, 16, and her mum didn’t have a job, and the house was in such a state that there were cobwebs everywhere and they had to rip up the carpet off the floor, to be warm at night, because they couldn’t afford beds or sheets or anything. The 16-year-old girl’s not in school, and she doesn’t have a job, and as kids, you know, our parents are our role models and it just made me sad, because like how is that child going to get out of that cycle if she’s kind of stuck in it? You know what I mean?”

What, if anything, have you done differently after visiting this site?

Related Stories

  • Shakerah
    Shakerah
    Shakerah | Riverhead - "I suppose you could kind of categorise it to a fear of being a disappointment to those that love you and believe in you the most."
  • Kevin
    Kevin
    Kevin | Māngere Bridge - "I feel like dance saved me, and it was good to have a positive outlet growing up where I’m from because there are a lot of external influences in the community that could lead you astray."
  • Caleb
    Caleb
    Caleb | Oratia - "We don’t live in a culture that is very keen on the idea of a God. But as I’ve got older I’ve come to realise we need something beyond ourselves."
  • Martha
    Martha
    Martha | Māngere - "Just giving opportunities I suppose, to people that don’t have any."
  • Arion
    Arion
    Arion | West Harbour - "Obviously it might seem a bit hypercritical to clean chimneys and be so worried about the environment."
  • Zee
    Zee
    Zee | Massey - "If you have the right mindset you can actually achieve greater things, like me coming from Fiji. I had nothing at that stage, but I worked my way up."
  • Tara
    Tara
    Tara | Westgate - "I want to seek personal fulfilment. I want to be a part of something bigger than myself. That’s a big part of why I went into medical physics."
  • Celine
    Celine
    Celine | Massey - "Actually, I am not a very strong person. I’m a little bit shy. But now it’s only myself here, I need to overcome some emotional loss to get some new friends."
  • John
    John
    John | Mt Roskill - "If you worry too much, you waste a lot of energy worrying about things that don’t mean nothing."
  • Garth
    Garth
    Garth | Ōtāhuhu - "It’s a lack of money. I’m a student, my wife’s a nurse, but because she so-calls ‘earns too much’ I can’t get a student allowance, so we’re living on just one wage. "
Load More (11)

Stay up to date!

Join our mailing list to receive the latest videos and updates from our team.

You have Successfully Subscribed!