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 Threads of Caring

Threads of Caring has now been published. It is a history of the Anglican Trust for Women and Children (ATWC) written by me and Ruth Greenaway.

 This storied Auckland organisation which began with an orphan home in the central city in 1858 now works with its community in south Auckland. It has long and deep connections to the Anglican Church in New Zealand.

Over the years, the orphan home moved premises, finally ending up in Wyllie Road, Papatoetoe after an awful fire in 1905 destroyed the premises in Parnell. Eliza Cowie, wife of the Bishop of Auckland, was an early and staunch supporter of the work and established a Women's Home in 1884 and a Children's Home in 1893. Both of these also moved over the years with Women's Home, now known as St Mary's Homes, moving to Otahuhu in 1904, and the Children's Home to Richmond Road in Ponsonby and then to Takapuna after the Trust was gifted the former home of Sir Henry Brett.

 The three Trusts which ran the different homes amalgamated in 1975 to become the Anglican Trust for Women and Children.

While society has undeniably changed since the middle of the nineteenth-century, the problems of today's ATWC clients bear a marked resemblance to the issues confronting those who came for help in the early days - lack of housing, and inability to keep a family together, the experience - by women, in particular - of abuse or neglect as children or adults.

Ruth and I enjoyed researching in the Auckland Anglican Diocesan Archives and using interviews which Ruth recorded with former clients, staff and Board members to tell the story of the organisation and the people it has helped over the years.

 


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