Vincent | Naenae, Wellington
“I feel proud, my wife and I, 28 years, only recently got married in the last four years, and it will be us having our sixth child at the age of 40. It was a really proud moment. I didn’t think that we would ever have any more kids, so that’s probably the recent one.
Growing up I had a broken family. Mum and Dad apart. I want to give my kids the best future and education they can get. I never had it. I was pushed out of Naenae College and I want to be able to give my kids the best opportunities and the platform they can launch from to be able to create their own legacies, and to leave a legacy greater and better than mine.
To give our children the best memories they can have, as many memories as they can have to empower them to be responsible in the best possible choices they make in life. I mean growing up, you didn’t think you would have children, and then you have a few more. We’ve also buried a son, so that was a blessing in itself, as well. He passed away, cot-death when he was a baby, so to be given the opportunity to be able to father another child is just for me, is the most amazing thing, to watch them learn, make mistakes, and to carry on learning.
What I value in life is it takes a village to raise a child. It takes a school teacher, a doctor, a nurse, as well as a mother and father to give them the best opportunity. I value this side of the fence and the age I’m at, I value my community huge. Our community really needs a voice, which on this part of my journey is now doing my best to reach out to council and Government. To also partner up with people in our community. I see that our reserve land that’s community recreational reserve land, is community, which should therefore be left in the hands of the community to choose what we want to do as opposed to what they want to do with it. Holding them accountable. I pay rates. I didn’t understand it, and then I realised that I’m paying for lavish hotels outside of my CBD, and lavish other stuff that’s not going to give back to us. We’ve only just recently got a park in Naenae, which is really humbling now that we’ve got it, but in 20 years we really haven’t had anything, and we’ve lost the Naenae pool, the Naenae hall, and almost lost the Naenae library. Things as a teenager I didn’t really think about I took for granted, and now I’m an adult, and also a grandfather, I really do want to see what’s best for us and our children after us.
My message for the community would be to get off the fence, whether which or what life you choose. If you’ve got money, give it to your community, because a child out there will want that swing or that slide, as a memory for them to have something. Get off the fence.”
