ChildFund International
For nearly 90 years, ChildFund has tackled the challenges children face head-on. We are local by design, built on trust and deeply focused on children and their communities. Our approach was made for this moment: when global challenges demand solutions built with, and shaped by, the people living them. Together with nearly 150 trusted, community-rooted partners across Africa, Asia and the Americas, we reach young people with child-centered, results-oriented programs that are built to scale. What really sets us apart? Our impact doesn’t expire when the funding cycle does. Backed by nearly 240,000 individual donors and a global network committed to long-term, systems-level change, ChildFund invests resources and expertise alongside our partners to create solutions that are community-owned and made to last — because we need each other.www.childfund.org
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Search complete. 13 mentions across 7 episodes found for "ChildFund International".
Oct 12, 2026
Josie PaganiPANELIST
[laughs]
Heather du Plessis-AllanHOST
... of Sherson Willis PR, and Josie Pagani, Child Fund chief executive.
Heather du Plessis-AllanHOST
Hello, you guys.
Josie PaganiPANELIST
Hi.
ThomasHOST
The policy announcement has been controversial, with Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters calling it dangerous and desperate, and some experts warning it could damage New Zealand's position on the world stage.
ThomasHOST
To discuss the foreign aid spending cuts, I talked to Josie Pagani, CEO of Child Fund New Zealand.
ThomasHOST
How would these cuts proposed by the National Party impact New Zealand's international relationships and its place on the world stage? Would we be looked at differently?
Josie PaganiGUEST
Look, we've seen these cuts happen globally, uh, uh, all over the world, so we've ...
Josie PaganiGUEST
170 million of them are displaced through war.
Josie PaganiGUEST
I mean, we're, we're living in such volatile times and s- and such insecure times.
Josie PaganiGUEST
This is absolutely not the time to be cutting New Zealand's aid budget and charities like Child Fund but also, uh, global aid budgets across the world, they're having huge impact on, on the sort of, on the number of deaths, for a start.
Josie PaganiGUEST
I mean, just the, the cuts in the USAID, for example, in the USAid, um, Trump era, where he cut aid dramatically, they reckon that will add about 14 million additional deaths in one year.
ThomasCORRESPONDENT
Kia ora, Alex.
ThomasCORRESPONDENT
This week I talked to the CEO of ChildFund New Zealand, Josie Pagani, about the National Party's plans to cut foreign aid to fund cancer drugs if re-elected.
Alex FoxHOST
And Liam, what do you have for us today?
LiamCORRESPONDENT
Moreda, Alex.
17 MINS LATER
ThomasCORRESPONDENT
This cut would de- decrease foreign aid spending by $431 million and would exclude any spending in the Pacific.
ThomasCORRESPONDENT
The policy announcement has been controversial, with Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters calling it dangerous and desperate, and some experts warning it could damage New Zealand's position on the world stage.
ThomasCORRESPONDENT
To discuss the foreign aid spending cuts, I talked to Josie Pagani, CEO of ChildFund New Zealand How would these cuts proposed by the National Party impact New Zealand's international relationships and its place on the world stage? Would we be looked at differently?
Josie PaganiSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
Look, we've seen these cuts happen globally, uh, uh, all over the world.
Heather du Plessis-AllanHOST
All right, joining me on The Front Bench, let me welcome in the A crew.
Heather du Plessis-AllanHOST
We have Barry Soper, senior political correspondent, Trish Sherson, Sherson Willis PR, Josie Pagani, Child Fund chief executive.
Heather du Plessis-AllanHOST
Hello, all of you.
Josie PaganiGUEST
Hello.
30 MINS LATER
Heather du Plessis-AllanHOST
Now listen, guys, thank you very much.
Heather du Plessis-AllanHOST
It's lovely to have you in the studio, and I'm already looking forward to next Monday, 4:00, and we can do it all again.
Heather du Plessis-AllanHOST
We have Barry Soper, senior political correspondent, Trish Sherson of Sherson Willison, Josie Pagani, the Child Fund chief executive.
Heather du Plessis-AllanHOST
Uh, we're talking to Chris Bishop after the news.
Bronwyn RideoutHOST
I was like, "Wow, I'd, yeah, I'd like to do some stuff for, you know, UNICEF and Doctors Without Borders." They had a very p- they had a very interesting model in terms of what charities they chose.
Bronwyn RideoutHOST
So if you were not Christian or you didn't agree with, like, ChildFund or World Vision, you did not have to fundraise for those companies.
Bronwyn RideoutHOST
So the idea was is that the money that went to the fundraising consultancy did not come from donations sent by people who were doing the monthly donations or the regular donations.
Bronwyn RideoutHOST
The money that paid the consultancy came from things like the investments, 'cause a lot of charities actually have investments.
Bronwyn RideoutHOST
These things have all happened to different charities at different times.
Bronwyn RideoutHOST
So, even back in the 1950s, one charity, I believe it was Save the Children, but as well as Christian Children's Fund, which is now Child Fund, they were doing a bit of research, trying to do an audit as to, hey, how many children do we have in our books? And they found that a lot of the children, a lot of the Korean children they had in their books, actually weren't orphans.
Bronwyn RideoutHOST
They had family orphans.
Bronwyn RideoutHOST
But the impact of poverty and the cost of going to school, the situation for these children was just so dire that for many parents, it just made more sense to put them in an orphanage where they can get all these services, get schooling, get food, and receive some money through these child sponsorship schemes.
Bronwyn RideoutHOST
Yeah, very direct
Mark HoneychurchHOST
model.
Katrina BorthwickHOST
Christian Children Fund, our child fund, stopped sponsoring children directly.
Katrina BorthwickHOST
And that happened to me.
speaker_1NARRATOR
The Huddle with New Zealand Sotheby's International Realty, a name you can trust locally and globally.
Heather du Plessis-AllanHOST
Huddle with us this evening, we have Trish Sherson of Cherson, Willis PR and Joseph O'Garney, Child Fund Chief Executive.
Heather du Plessis-AllanHOST
Hello, you two.
Trish ShersonPANELIST
Hello.