New Zealand author, social worker and campaigner Daryl Brougham (1979-2018) was in foster care as a child. In his eighteen years in the care system, Daryl had over eighty placements, twenty social workers and suffered a range of physical, emotional and psychological abuse. 

Daryl’s book, Through the Eyes of a Foster Child, was published in 2015 and Daryl became a prominent figure campaigning against the brutal treatment of children in the state care.  

His work helped to prompt the Historical Abuse in State Care Royal Commission, announced by Prime Minister Jacinda Arden in February 2018. The Inquiry was established to investigate the abuse of children and adults in institutions run by the state – in youth detention centres, psychiatric hospitals, and orphanages.  

By the time he aged out of ‘care’ Daryl Brougham had been to twenty-seven schools in Auckland and was in approximately eighty foster homes. In his book, however, he includes accounts of only thirty of those.  

Daryl had to attend the Family Court and be discharged from State care by the presiding judge when he came of age. This was the first time he had been recognised for having survived so many placements, even though the judge was not aware of the violence and cruelty Daryl endured in some of the them. 

Daryl went on to tertiary education, including graduating with a BA in Social Work Practice in 2014. In 2015 he received an official apology, and some compensation, for the treatment he received while in state care.

In 2017 Daryl was a New Zealander of the Year Finalist and in 2018 he won the New Zealander of the Year Local Hero award. 

References: 

“Daryl Brougham, Through the Eyes of a Foster Child.” Daryl Brougham. https://www.darylbrougham.com/about-me 

Image available here.