It was the January of 2020 that Michelle* received the phone call that would change her life. It was from Oranga Tamariki, the government agency responsible for the wellbeing of Kiwi kids. They had a question: Would she take in three of her grandchildren?
“What could I say?” she asks me. “They’re my grandchildren… I told them I had nothing, but if they could find me a house, I would move to Hamilton and look after them.”
Mum-of-four Michelle had just shifted to Blenheim, leaving behind her managerial job in Auckland. She was there to help one of her daughters, who was due to give birth to her second child. But now others needed her more.
Oranga Tamariki promised to find Michelle a house and equip it with beds, drawers and a refrigerator full of food, so the 56-year-old duly headed north to begin her new life. She arrived in Hamilton to find the house empty, without a stick of furniture, much less a freezer full of food. It was also filthy. The children were due to move in with her in three days.
“I was utterly overwhelmed and disheartened,” she recalls. “I cried continuously for two days straight. I didn’t
