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?”