Real Kiwi hero under attack

    A hurtful hatebook campaign


    By Joseph Lose

    THE woman recognised for her stand against child abuse has become the victim of a hate campaign.
    Maori of the Year and North and South magazine finalist for New Zealander of 2011, Cherie Kurarangi Sweeney has been targeted by a group of “haters” who claim she has misused donations, kept cuddly toys intended for sick children and even killed her son.
    “What they are saying is really hurtful and mean,” Cherie told Truth.
    “None of these people have had the guts to say anything to me face-to-face, instead posting things on Facebook.
    “They have even put my mum’s home address onto Facebook.
    “What next, a picket outside my home?”
    Cherie, who launched NARK (Nation of Advocates for the Rights of Kids) after the death of Ngaruawahia infant Serenity Jay Scott in April last year, said the malicious campaign started after she posted a personal  plea on Facebook.
    “I was in a bit of financial strife and asked for help to pay my mortgage,” Cherie said.
    She said the “mahi” she had put into the campaigns had drained her mentally, physically and financially.
    She was $3500 in arrears on her mortgage and the bank demanded payment, so looked for help from her friends online, “before me and my children lose our home”.
    “I know I have done a lot for the community via my campaign against child abuse,” she posted. “But this means nothing to the bank, as it does not pay the bills.”
    “I asked for $2 and that would have helped me get my mortgage paid,” she said.
    “But these haters invited themselves into this and started going on about payments and then started saying I had killed my son. That hurt.”
    Cherie’s son Jago drowned four years ago.
    “What the hell do you do when idiots like that are attacking me,” she said.
    “My family has skeletons in the closet like everyone, but the work I have done to make people aware of child abuse has cost me a lot as well.
     “It makes me sick.
    “I have been looking at ways of getting funding to get these campaigns going.
    “But I have not misused funds  for my own personal gain.”
    Cherie said some detective work had uncovered unsavoury aspects to the background of her so-called accusers.
    One she said even belonged to a pro incest group, “but I don’t want to put that stuff up against them. That would make me as bad as them,” she said.
    Cherie raised $4180.61 from her appeal including a one-off donation of $3481. On February 16, she deposited $4181 into a Westpac bank account, to cover her mortgage. 
    “The money did not come from NARK funds,” she said.
    “I’m not conning anyone.” 
    But some NARK money – $558 – had been used, after it was agreed by NARK board members to pay for an internet connection in January, Cherie said.
    Cherie said she and her husband were also being labelled bludgers.
    “We have been told we are eligible to be on a benefit but the fact is we don’t want to be bludgers,” Cherie said
    .Truth Weekender Article


    Admin notes: Figures "she claims" here, are not matching up to the "Balance" sheet from the "Mortgage Event", she had posted up. It was actually $4229,51 Total Amount. Again, she has failed to be honest on this. We also see her distracting from the issue of her and  Nark Org, and maliciously accuse and attack people on our page, for wanting answers. She has no "evidence" of her claims, but instead of being up front and honest about herself and her NARK Org, she has (a habit of pointing the finger at others) making unsubstantiated accusations and malicious rumors towards anyone, who are needing the truth, about where their donations have gone too. Appalling behavior from a person, who is meant to be a role model in the community.
    28 March 2012 15:19