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A colourful optometry van called Celia visited Gisborne this week to show prospective funding partners its potential for screening children for eyesight problems at schools.

Wearing glasses for the first time or getting their hearing problems treated had been life-changing for students at Edmund Hillary School - both inside and outside the classroom, according to principal Kataraina Nock.

The Painga Project aims to put 7000 pairs of glasses on the faces of children in high equity index schools each year, through its purpose-built mobile optometry clinic, a mini-bus called Celia.

More than a year after the Government shifted to a $3-per-meal school lunch model, some Northland schools say the programme is failing the very students it was designed to help.

A child does not choose the street they grow up on, their parent’s income, or whether their home is warm, dry and secure.

The Children's Commissioner says the latest report on child poverty reveals the country's "national shame".

"Everyone should be treated the same." It's a phrase that surfaces often in New Zealand's public debate. Whether it's discussions about healthcare, education, local government or Te Tiriti o Waitangi, calls for equality can sound straightforward. It means fairness, giving everyone the same treatment.

This week we hear from Sarah Corson, co-founder of The Painga Project. This enterprise was set up to improve the health and wellbeing of students, families and communities in low decile South Auckland primary and intermediate schools.

A charity screening children for sight and hearing problems at schools in high-need areas now has a fully kitted-out optometry bus - and big plans to roll the service out to reach more regions and adults too.

An optometrist is concerned more children are now at risk of getting myopia or short-sightedness, due to the increase in daily screen-time.

It was while researching her two latest projects that Award-winning journalist Rebecca Macfie came to realise the privileges colonisation had bequeathed her own family.

Creating and maintaining the conditions for learning for tamariki burdened by compounding hardship is a relentless and all-consuming challenge for school leaders. In Papakura, that burden is lightened by community partners who share a fierce commitment to educational equity.

In treating school lunches as a service rather than an investment, penny pinching risks raising costs above value.

As teen anxiety and depression continue to rise, and as our rangatahi face mounting pressures, the experiences these centres offer are increasingly important.

Eye patches aren’t just for pirates and villains. In Elio, Disney/Pixar introduces a young hero with a patch – and breaks old stereotypes in the process.

98,900 children in Aotearoa New Zealand are living in persistent poverty. This is according to the newly released official Statistics NZ definition for persistent child poverty - released on Friday.

One in four Kiwi children live in households where food runs out often or sometimes.

The same week the Government revealed its new child and youth strategy, experts gathered across the road to discuss the economic, developmental and moral cost of child poverty.

When award-winning journalist and author Rebecca Macfie began a new project to explore poverty in Aotearoa, she first had to ask herself some hard questions.

Principals from schools in the country's poorest communities have united to call for an end to new NCEA reading, writing and maths tests.

This Government, like those before it, has once again failed to protect our most vulnerable. And in doing so, it has laid bare a truth we cannot ignore — Aotearoa is a nation that does not prioritise the wellbeing of Māori children.

A researcher has partnered with a South Auckland marae to grow an urban "food forest" with the goal of using it as a seed for future change.

Youth crime is a constant issue in New Zealand – and in the last few years, stories of ram raids, violent attacks and spree offending have dominated the headlines.

The new school lunches menu has been revealed - with Associate Education Minister David Seymour saying the new programme will cost $3 a lunch and save $130 million. Becky Erwood is the co-founder and director of FED. She writes about how hard a $3 lunch would be.

For a household with two adults and two children, food prices have risen 35% between 2018 and 2023.

A University of Auckland researcher says she cannot blame parents for choosing to buy junk food over fruits and vegetables, but notes the negative impact poor nutrition can have on children.

The Act leader’s scheme to cut spending on the free school lunch programme not only subtly shift costs from central government to schools, it also risks damaging the very thing that makes the programme work, writes Max Rashbrooke.

Treating failing eyesight and high cholesterol are two new ways to lower the risk of dementia developing, a major report suggests.

As industrialised social support structures are cut back and social problems deepen, we must deal with the causes and not just ease the symptoms.

The hearing and vision of Clevedon School students was checked last week, thanks to support from charity Painga Project.

Are we now entering a post-kindness era? We haven’t heard much talk of kindness from the Government, except maybe for Nicola Willis’ defence of the Government taking a tough stance on welfare dependency. “It is not a kind thing to let someone linger on welfare for many years.” (Or, as Luxon said, “The free ride is over”.)

Public health researchers are arguing against cuts to the free school lunch programme, saying there's even room to extend it to help more hungry children.

A dozen school and early childhood sector groups have united to ask Prime Minister Christopher Luxon to retain funding for the free school lunch scheme, Ka Ora Ka Ako.

As International Women's Day rolls around again, women can sit back, relax and reflect on all the amazing progress that's been made in the past year. Kidding!

The Hearing House is an Auckland-based charity which provides health and counselling services for people with cochlear implants. This year, the charity is launching a mobile hearing clinic, which will bring services closer to the communities which need them.

Eye health experts want more Māori to get their eyes checked regularly, as undiagnosed eye conditions are causing long-term vision loss for te iwi Māori.

"The earlier it's identified, the more we can do for it" is an optometrist's warning to New Zealand families amid a global rise in myopia, or shortsightedness, among children.

Revolutionary laws repealed, language initiatives reversed, authorities disestablished, even the climate crisis denied. As 2023 wraps, writes John Campbell, is the coalition government leading Aotearoa forward – or backward?

An Auckland charity has found 25 percent of children across three schools are suffering with eyesight problems after running hearing and vision tests.

A volunteer-run charity group focused on the wellbeing and health of students is changing the lives of south Auckland kids, one hearing and vision test at a time. Painga Project has been testing primary and intermediate-aged schoolchildren in low decile South Auckland schools for two years.

Wearing glasses for the first time or getting their hearing problems treated had been life changing for students at Edmund Hillary School - both inside and outside the classroom, according to principal Kataraina Nock.

Poor eyesight and hearing are hindering learning for one in four South Auckland primary school children tested by the Painga Project.

Under the current government, schools have ditched decile numbers, coped with a pandemic and started to get to grips with NCEA and curriculum changes.

Rheumatic fever is skyrocketing and cases in the first six months of 2023 have already ballooned past the numbers for the whole of last year. It's prompted an expert to warn more Māori and Pasifika children will die unless health resources are targeted to help them.

Eighteen months ago, James McDiarmid​ struggled to stand for more than 10 minutes. At his heaviest, weighing 281kg​, he never dreamed he’d be where he is today: demonstrating the form to hold in a plank, more than 125kg​ down.

As a feisty teenager, Ngahuia Te Awekotuku MNZM was regularly dismissed as “unseemly”. But it was her defiant and inner Māori strength. she says, that saw her go from expulsion from her first year at high school to Emeritus Professor and now a Companion of the Royal Society Te Apārangi.

Aggressive families, drugged parents and even a dog attack were among the challenges cited in half-year and full-year reports to the Education Ministry from 28 organisations contracted to provide attendance services.

The Ministry of Health funds free vision checks for children. If your child has a vision problem, finding it early is good for their learning and development.

If your child is 15 or under and you have noticed they have vision problems causing them to need glasses, you may be able to get the spectacle subsidy. Find out what you can use it for and how to claim it.

With so many things to worry about as a single, working parent, eye care for Karla Fisher’s daughter, Zali, fell by the wayside.

The waiting list for young people needing dental surgeries has been stuck stubbornly around 4000 for the past year, and dentists feel “unable” to make a dent.

It was a bitterly cold morning in Geneva the day New Zealand’s government delegation met with the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child to measure our nation’s progress.

Rather than addressing the real concerns of schools, after six years in opposition the National Party is offering mandated teaching hours, mandated testing, mandated reporting and mandated bans on cell phones.

An award-winning investigative journalist, Macfie spent time with child-health specialists, whānau, marae leaders, non-government organisations, community organisers, iwi and local government leaders, mana whenua, housing activists, researchers and social entrepreneurs. She wanted to get behind the data on poverty and deprivation in New Zealand and listen to those on the front line who are working with families to help them build lives of mana and security.

innovate In the second in her series on community-led responses to poverty, REBECCA MACFIE visits Porirua East, where a kindergarten group has blossomed into an all-ages health and development hub.

Inthefirstofa four-part series on community efforts to defeat poverty, REBECCA MACFIE visits Hastings, where locals and state agencies have joined forces to give children a better start in life.

Massive changes in the national curriculum and an overhaul of the NCEA, including new literacy and numeracy requirements, are underway.

There are concerns that thousands of students at low decile schools are missing out on support that could help them ace their exams. The qualifications authority, NZQA, reported just 3 percent of students sitting exams at decile 1 schools were using Special Assessment Conditions (SACs).

Banks are providing “nightmare” service for smaller not-for-profit organisations with the simplest banking arrangements like opening an account sometimes taking months, a report calling for change says.

A scathing new ERO report revealed students enrolled in alternative education programmes are far more likely than other kids to end up living on the benefit or facing police proceedings as adults.

On the streets of Ōtāhuhu in South Auckland, you don’t have to look far for a nicotine fix. It’s a pattern repeated all over the country. The higher the deprivation of an area, the more specialist vape retailers it has. A Sunday investigation has found nearly 10 times as many e-cigarette outlets in our lowest income communities as there are in the most well-off.

Education has the power to prevent rangatahi Māori from turning to crime, but it is not often talked about in the staffroom, Fullbright scholar Dr Will Flavell says.

Northland is over-represented for having tamariki with missing or decaying teeth, but Portland School on the outskirts of Whangārei is doing their bit to better the oral health of its students.

The following State of Child Health report clearly shows us that we have a lot of work to do before this is true for all of our young people. Covering data from 2000 to the end of 2021, including two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, this report shines a spotlight on unacceptably high numbers of mokopuna who live with health issues, many of them preventable. *Download full report from the link below*

The just-released report from Cure Kids shines a spotlight on unacceptably high numbers of children and adolescents who live with health issues, many of them preventable.

In its first ten weeks, the Vision Bus Aotearoa had visited seven primary schools as well as the Māngere Refugee Centre, testing people and fitting glasses for children who otherwise wouldn’t have had them.

This election year is shaping up to be significant for Māori equity. Not only has the notion of Māori “privilege” reared its unfounded head again. This time it meets an assertive Māori presence. This will be a testing time.

In mid-March, in the tense week before the British government announced its belated coronavirus-induced lockdown, certain everyday products became extraordinarily hard to find. Panicked buyers swept up fundamentals of alimentation and elimination: yeast, flour, bathroom tissue. More surprising, the horticulture industry experienced a surge in demand.

There are considerable data to suggest that hearing health care disparities constitute a major factor in loss to follow-up or documentation for children going through the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention process. Families are affected by a combination of factors underlying these disparities, resulting in delayed care and suboptimal developmental outcomes for children who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Seven hundred children were recalled for hearing screening at age 2–3 years due to a problem with their newborn hearing screen. They had all been well babies with no identified risk factors for hearing loss and hence were not scheduled for targeted follow-up to retest hearing.