Cold hard fact: More than 1 in 10 children in our poorest communities don't have their own bed. Child Poverty Monitor 2018
Right now, Variety needs your help to provide proper beds and cosy bedding for hundreds of Kiwi kids who are sleeping on the floor or bed-sharing this winter.
In some kids' rooms, an old mattress is all they have to sleep on. For some, there isn't even that. These children are at higher risk of winter illnesses, and they're missing out on the sleep they need to learn at school.
Ten-year-old Lewis and 9-year-old Jake have had to share a bed with their mother, Holly, since they were babies. The only furniture in their 'bedroom' is a thin mattress on the floor. They need beds of their own, and new bedding, but Holly struggles every week to make ends meet for the family of three, and new beds, or even new bed linen, are completely out of reach.
"Lewis said to me the other day, 'Wouldn't it be nice mum, if we had our own room, with drawers to put our clothes in, and bunks, so that our friends could come and sit in our room and play games with us.' I broke down and cried when he said that, because I know I can't afford to buy them."
