Legendary All Blacks coach Sir Graham Henry tackles child poverty

Former All Blacks coach Sir Graham Henry is one of a group of prominent Kiwis who are throwing their weight behind a campaign to raise awareness of child poverty.

A collection of videos featuring Sir Graham and other personalities such as Andrew Mulligan, Toni Street and Stacey Morrison are being released as part of Variety the Children's Charity's campaign #DearNewZealand.

The videos show some of the country's biggest names reading letters written by a child living in poverty in New Zealand, giving an insight into their daily lives, and will be released over the coming week.

New Zealanders will be asked to give their thoughts on what they would do to end child poverty using the hashtag #DearNewZealand.

Variety chief executive Lorraine Taylor said the campaign aims to encourage people to take action.

"Although we often hear about the problem of child poverty in New Zealand from the adult perspective, those most affected, the children, remain voiceless."

According to a 2015 report from Child Poverty Monitor, there are about 80,000 kids growing up in severe hardship in New Zealand.