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Story: Child abuse

Health camps

A line of children stand outside, while doctors and nurses weigh and measure others.

From 1919, malnourished children could be sent to health camps, where they were fed nutritious food, weighed and measured, and given regular exercise. The woman weighing these boys at a camp in 1928 is Dr Elizabeth Gunn, founder of the health camps.

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How to cite this page

Bronwyn Dalley, Child abuse – State action on child abuse, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/30562/health-camps (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Bronwyn Dalley, published 26 April 2011.

Comments

cristina reid
06 June 2023
I remember the 1960s and the abuse that went on inside these places, where we all were so traumatised that became the third person to cope. I would like to know of any other children now grown up that witnessed or were the victims of abuse.