The Kids Are All Right

Margaret Chung has fostered more than 50 abused, frightened children, giving them safety and love. She tells Judy Bailey about her own tragedy that drove her to open her heart and home.

I’m your Marge.” That’s what she tells the damaged little people she cares for. And what a comfort that must be.

Margaret Chung is an extraordinary woman. She has cared for more than 50 children in the past nine years. All of them taken from their families for their own protection by CYF, or The Ministry for Vulnerable Children as it is now called.

The first thing you see as you stand on the doorstep of Marge’s rambling west Auckland home is a word painting. It proclaims, “In this house we’re a family. Love each other, laugh a lot, sing out loud, do hugs, smile, share good things, forgive quickly, do I’m sorry, show respect…” Hers is that sort of home.

Marge greets me with a baby cradled in her arms. His big brown eyes solemnly take me in, and then, after a bit of encouragement, he gives a tentative smile. He is safe in those enveloping arms.

Marge doesn’t judge the families who need her help. “People who have been poorly parented themselves have no role models in how to parent effectively. If you only have limited knowledge and limited schooling you just do your best.”

“My desire is for these children to have some happiness in their lives.”

Margaret Chung was born 51 years ago in Taupo to a Maori dad of Ngapuhi descent and a Pakeha mother.

She remembers her own childhood as being idyllic. Like most country kids, she played outside all day with other children in the neighbourhood. She and her siblings were loved and cherished. Theirs was, she explains, an open house. Everyone was welcome. “Dad was from a big family. There were always cousins staying and aunts and uncles. Mum had a big heart. There was a family of young children in our street whose mother had passed away. They spent a lot of time at our house.”

It’s that generosity of spirit that they have passed on to their daughter.