Message from Alan Duff

Greetings, everyone.  Alan Duff reporting in from my May schools visits which I thought you might be interested in hearing about.  Firstly, good to report that our Duffy schools remain strongly passionate about the programme.  And, sad as it was to see the earthquake damage at some of our Christchurch schools, the kids were upbeat and getting on with it.

It was neat to hear their tales of reacting as they had been taught to do when the quake struck.  “We went into turtle positions!”  “It was scary but cool too.”  “The ground was rolling up and down!” as the quake happened when the children were out on the playground, luckily.

Yet when I started handing out books you would not have thought they’d gone through such a frightening experience.  Kids excitedly started reading their books and not caring what Duffy had to say!  Goes to show, eh, the power of books!

One of the many joys of being involved with Duffy Books is my visits to the schools; I can tell you, I never get tired of doing it.  Tired at the end of the day, sure, but I feel uplifted, indeed privileged, to be able to experience the children in their unpredictable moments, take their questions, see the expressions.  Some ask incredibly intelligent questions.  And you should try holding the attention of 20 or 30 five and six year olds.  It is hard, I tell you.

One little boy piped up and said, “My Mum reads to me. But Dad reads better.”  When I asked him why, he said, “Because he gives me a ice-block.”!!  Of course a lot of kids don’t have a Dad, as you single Mums will well know.  Yes, it is a modern fact of life but still, kids miss the presence of a dad.  I see it in kids who start talking about their absent father and then they clam up.  I do understand.  The Duffy Team understands.  It’s why we’ve stayed around for over 15 years.  People are hurting.  Mums, grandmothers, the kids.

So why am I bringing this sort of stuff up?  I guess as a way of saying that I personally understand the home situations.  It’s why any kid who comes up to give Duffy a cuddle I give a big cuddle back.  It’s why we send Role Models, so the children can have someone to look up to and aspire to be like.  It’s why I wrote the Maori Heroes book.  Because our kids need people – heroes – to look up to.

At the start of the Maori Heroes book I spoke of the heroic single Mums.  The heroic kids who never give up and so eventually achieve something.  It is the reason we have Role Model visits, of anyone from an All Black to a television star to a local person known to everyone in her or his community.  They are someone to look up to.

Now, we can’t fix all the pain and hurt we see.  We can only do our little bit.  Just be assured that when all else fails the children can take refuge in a book, they can find sanctuary, comfort.  At the same time their imagination develops, so does their intelligence, their word power.  With these tools we give them better hope for the future.  Which is why we’ll be around in another 15 years making sure our Duffy kids get books and all the other parts of our programme.  Thanks for listening.

Arohanui

Alan Duff