Poppy Day Helps Veterans

After the tumult and the shouting dies, and the captains and the kings depart, the surviving troops come home from the battlefield to a hero’s welcome.

But it’s not long before the realities of post-war life start to catch up with them.

Some readily pick up the threads of previous family life and employment, but many more are scarred physically and mentally by wounds, disablement or the long-term effects of having been a prisoner of war. Others find it difficult to readjust after the stress and turmoil of their wartime experience.

There are widows and immediate family members who just can’t cope financially.

There are also veterans who adjust extremely well in their post-war endeavours only to fall on hard times in later years. And, as they age, many slip through the cracks in the country’s medical system. Some languish on hospital waiting lists waiting for cataract, hip, knee and other surgery. Others are housebound because they can’t afford to re-register their car or need help to purchase a mobility scooter.

All these people, the veterans of all the wars in which New Zealand has been involved, as well as the many designated emergencies and peacekeeping deployments undertaken by this country are candidates for Returned Services’ Association welfare assistance, whether they are members of the organisation or not.

“RSA has a moral and physical responsibility for the welfare of all returned servicemen and women,” says David Cox RNZRSA’s National President. “All that is required to access welfare support from associations throughout the country is the service connection and a recognised need.”

He says some problems can be alleviated by the voluntary efforts of RSA welfare officers, “but in many cases a grant from an association welfare trust fund is the only practical solution.”

Annually, the Royal New Zealand Returned Services’ Association and its affiliated local associations disburse about $2 million in welfare grants to ex-service personnel and their immediate families.

	Donations made to the Poppy Day Appeal are used to support RSA welfare services for returned servicemen and women in the locality in which the funds were raised.

“Of that amount about $1 million, is generously donated by the people of New Zealand on Poppy Day,” says Mr Cox.

He says these monies go some way to meeting the needs of veterans but is now becoming insufficient to maintain a reasonable standard of living for some of them.

“There is a real sense of urgency to improve the quality of life of World War II veterans who are now in their 80s,” he says. “And of course we must not forget our other rapidly ageing veterans who served in Korea, Malaya, Borneo and Vietnam, their needs must also be addressed together with those from later conflicts and peacekeeping operations.”

Mr Cox says each case is sympathetically assessed and confidential assistance given on the determination of a bone-fide need.

“And that assistance can only be provided as long as the Returned Services’ Associations have the continuing generous financial support of the New Zealand public.”

Poppy Day will this year be observed on Thursday April 17.