Life Education Trust (Life Ed) is a children’s charity which supports 6,000 tamariki throughout Tairawhiti. They educate and empower children with the knowledge and confidence to make safe choices around drugs, peer pressure, and healthy food choices, which is especially important to at risk students and whanau.
Covid-19 saw an increase in demand, schools needed their help more than ever. Poor mental health and wellbeing of our most vulnerable children was already identified before lockdown, the result of which stirred up a range of emotions in children. For many it meant a recurrence of unsettled behaviours.
In addition, Life Ed’s key community fundraising events had to be postponed or cancelled, which made it hard for the small organisation when our tamariki needed them most.
Last year a local donor, who wishes to remain anonymous, donated $25,000 to Sunrise to grant to organisations helping with the local response to the crisis, Life Ed was one of the organisations to receive a grant from the generosity of that donor.