Almost half of all funds donated to Givealittle in the last year — around $15 million — have gone to Kiwis needing help with their health, according to the crowdfunding site’s latest report.
It showed New Zealanders donated a total of $33.1 million, a drop compared to last year’s $43.5 million. Of the approximately 11,000 pages created in the last year, the top three categories chosen were health (2407), community (1487) and animals (1043).
Givealittle chief executive Lythan Chapman said it was no surprise that health was the dominant category.
“I think the cost of living crisis will definitely be impacting that”, she told 1News. “We’ve got expensive drugs to pay for and they need extra funding. I think that’s were the Givealittle platform can really help.”
Cancer patient Akhil Chaudhary told 1News that donations via the website saved his life.
His medication, which slows the spread of cancer cells, costs more than $5000 a month.
“This Givealittle is really my life saver,” he said.
Patient advocate Malcolm Mulholland said he was not surprised so many donations were going towards Kiwis’ health.
“Our health system is in free fall and when it comes to the funding of medicines we know we’re at the bottom of the developed world.”
In a statement, Health Minister Shane Reti acknowledged there was always more to be done to support the sector.
“We are investing more in healthcare than ever before, with an annual spend of around $30 billion. Through Budget 2024, we also committed $16.68 billion of new funding over three Budgets, to provide the health system with ongoing certainty.”
Associate Health Minister David Seymour, who is responsible for Pharmac, added: “It’s hard not to admire the sacrifices people make with private fundraising, but the Government needs to step up too.
“That’s why the Government has provided the largest ever medicines budget, committing an additional $1.8 billion to fix a fiscal cliff left by the previous government, and providing a $604 million uplift to ensure more Kiwis can access life-changing medicines.”