Many thanks to Tanya for the transcript and to Tracey for the pic

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Starship Log

November 2000

The Newsletter of the Starship Foundation & Friends of Starship

Lucy Wages War on Child Abuse Stars Join Timely Appeal

Lucy Lawless helped the Starship Foundation and Sky City launch a major appeal in August to work towards a breakthrough in the care of abused children.

Her support, alongside rugby great Michael Jones and newsreader Liz Gunn, has prompted the country to respond generously with donations, energy, advice and goodwill.

Lucy, who earlier this year kindly accepted the role of Starship Foundation ambassador, was in hot media demand, gracing the front page of the New Zealand Herald two days in a row, as well as appearing on the Holmes Show and in radio interviews.

The Safe and Sound Appeal will help set up New Zealand's first multi-agency centre to stop young victims falling between vital Government and community services. This is due to open early next year.

The centre will be located in central Auckland and combine the Starship Children's Hospital's child abuse unit, the Police, social welfare and counselling agencies under one roof. It will be a one-stop coordination service, linking key organisations to ensure abuse victims and their families are not denied services they need. For cases that are likely to progress to the criminal court, the centre will also be used for gathering recent complaint statements. But we don't want to stop there.

Media organisations, including TVNZ, Newstalk ZB Network, CanWest Radio and the New Zealand Herald have pledged free advertising space to extend the appeal. The Starship Foundation hopes to use some of this airtime to run a child abuse prevention ad over the Christmas break.

Dr Patrick Kelly, head of Starship's child abuse unit, says the festive season can be one of great stress on many families. His team sees at least one major case of abuse during the festive season, on top of the hundreds of children admitted to his unit during the year with suspected physical or sexual abuse.

We would like to thank Sky City for it's enormous support, worth more than $500,000, for this appeal. Much of that was used on media and publicity of the campaign.

The Starship Foundation is committed to ensuring Patrick and his team is well placed to meeting the needs of young abuse victims.

 


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