By TOM FITZSIMONS
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
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KENT BLECHYNDEN/The Dominion Post
IN THE MIDDLE: Amina and daughter Hanan Yusuf could have benefited from a NZ First donation. |
The Somali solo mother of five is assisted by the Autism Intervention Trust, which rejected the donation, deciding the money was not NZ First's to give.
The sum was part of the $158,000 the party was ordered to pay back by the auditor-general after it was spent illegally on electioneering in 2005. The party gave the money to charities instead.
The fallout over the illegal spending is a world away from Berhampore School, where Ms Yusuf was picking up Hanan, her eight-year-old severely autistic daughter, this week.
"The biggest problem I have got is that she keeps running away," she said through an interpreter, while Hanan ran around the room and banged the walls. "And she will eat anything, even the rubbish."
The Autism Intervention Trust had let Hanan attend a holiday programme, and helped the family move out of its Housing New Zealand accommodation.
Berhampore School principal Mark Potter said Hanan needed constant one-on-one care and could not speak or understand speech. "She often causes damage to the houses she's in ... but she's got a gentle spirit."
If the charity had accepted the money, it could have given Hanan after-school care, he said.
Ms Yusuf moved to New Zealand eight years ago, a few months after Hanan was born in Kenya.
Trust spokeswoman Prue Payne said no new offers of funding had been received.
Source: Stuff, Nov 05, 2008