Pillars

Hi VSP's (very special people). I want to thank you all for your donations throughout 2010. I have been really blessed by the giving that has come through to PILLARS through Give A Little to help New Zealand children of prisoners. Your giving really makes a difference in the lives of these children who currently do not have a voice (except for PILLARS) and who often are at the brunt of the crime of their parents. We have had an amazing year! For those of you who donated to our most recent event by supporting Philip Reddish from Yellow in the Fight for Youth – thank you! Philip is our hero. He raised altogether over $3,500 and it is still climbing. We went to Yellow offices today and presented him with an award. He is nothing less than a marvel. On Friday we are launching the long awaited children of prisoner’s website. It is the first of its kind in the world. Brad Thorn our Ambassador is pushing a big red button and it will go live to the world. We have been fundraising for it for about three years and a number of you donated to this. Well it is now a reality! So thank you for your donations. You can check it out at www.justus.org.nz. Christmas is looming on us. A local church has come alongside and have put a Christmas Tree up in their church to collect Christmas presents for the children and another church has collected cans of food etc through the year and provided our families with food hampers. Your donations have just been amazing I want to thank you personally for reaching out this way. It is just mind blowing!! You can be assured your gift is always put to very good use. We have a wonderful Governance Board and Treasurer who scrutinises every bit of income and expenditure and provides an excellent overview and written report at our monthly meetings. Since my last update, we have now completed our second year research report on "A Study of Children of Prisoners" We now have the 1st and 2nd year report up on our website www.pillars.org.nz We have found that there are approximately 23,000 children of prisoners in New Zealand at any given time. They are in the main poverty stricken and have major physical and emotional health needs. Now that the research is finished, the next step is to make sure that the needs of these children are recognised and met. We have plenty to do. It is a mammoth task ahead of us, but between you and me we will make a difference in the lives of these invisible children. Please contact me if you want to receive our quarterly newsletter. Warm Regards and many blessings Verna McFelin verna.mcfelin@pillars.org.nz Founder and Chief Executive PILLARS

Hi VSP's (very special people). I want to thank you all for your donations throughout the financial year. I have been really blessed by the giving that has come through to PILLARS through Give A Little  to help New Zealand children of prisoners. Your giving really makes a difference in the lives of these children who currently do not have a voice (except for PILLARS) and who often are at the brunt of the crime of their parents. We have a wonderful group of volunteers that work alongside these kids and they are amazing people that give their time to make a difference in the lives of these children and our wonderful staff support them in it. Give a Little has told me today that we have received a very large anonymous donation from one VSP for $3,606.24. This is amazing and I know you want to remain anonymous, but I want to thank you personally for reaching out this way. It is just mind blowing!! You can be assured your gift will be put to very good use. We have a wonderful Governance Board and Treasurer who scrutinises every bit of income and expenditure and provides an excellent overview and written report at our monthly meetings. We plan to put out another newsletter. There is story about Samantha whose Dad committed murder and some of the issues she has had coping with this. You will find it on our website mid-April http://www.pillars.org.nz" www.pillars.org.nz Also on our website is the media release "Rough justice for the innocents? written by Amanda Cropp for the Weekender magazine - February 20th 2010. If you didn't get to see it you can read about our work here. Since my last update, we have now completed our first year research report on "A Study of Children of Prisoners" We called the report "Invisible Children." There is a copy of the full report on the front of our website. We hope they are not so invisible in policy by the time we have written the second report. We are right now interviewing children and caregivers and prisoners about their experiences as children and parents. On March 7th we celebrated Childrens Day out at Christchurch Mens Prison. We took a magician and did face painting and games. What a difference it made to the children visiting their parents. It brought in a ray of sunshine into a grey dark world. I am taking a bit of leave and will be back on April 13th. I would like to show all of you around PILLARS (if you live in Christchurch or are down this way at any time  or in Auckland when we come up monthly.)  If you want to take up this offer, please phone me on 03 377 3990 and if you want to go on our mailing list to receive our quarterly newsletter, let me know. Kind Regards and many blessings Verna McFelin Founder and Chief Executive PILLARS