Accidents happen! Or so we say. The very word accident implies some kind of random occurrence, some kind of bad luck that could befall each or every one of us at any time. A closer look makes it clear that luck (good or bad) has very little to do with human injury and family tragedy in Aotearoa New Zealand, or indeed internationally.

I have been involved in recent research that shows that fatal fires occur more often among households in relatively disadvantaged streets than in streets where people are better off. Child injury rates in New Zealand are among the highest in the developed world, and poverty is strongly linked with most kinds of childhood injury. Somehow, through the social and political choices we have made over many years, we have allowed safety to become an unearned privilege of the affluent, and injury to become part and parcel of disadvantage.

To begin to address these issues I want to be part of a church which is more than a mutual self-help club. Our caring must reach beyond individual food parcels to influence the type of society we choose to live in. Collectively we can be a voice to ensure that households on benefits receive their full entitlement. We can speak out when families are forced to use candles because of the way we structure our electricity industry, or when free trade policies outlaw safety standards for furniture.

There is a public health catchcry "Think globally, act locally, respond personally". There are personal and local actions we can take, to begin to make a difference to the alarming health and injury disparities among New Zealanders. These actions include giving to organisations such as Habitat for Humanity, or contributing to a foodbank.

Yet to really make a difference we need to take a step back and see the big picture. To try to sPanz understand how our society keeps on stretching the distance between the most well off and the most disadvantaged households. To support and encourage politically courageous people who recognise and try to close those gaps. To promote the idea that a responsible government must consider social as well as fiscal impacts of their policies. Above all to work with others for a society where every child is valued and safe, a society where 'affluent' and 'disadvantaged' are no longer in our dictionary because they have become meaningless terms.

Mavis Duncanson, a doctor who has specialised in public health, works at the Wellington School of Medicine and Health Sciences, and is an elder and keen member of the café@church team at Wadestown Presbyterian Church, Wellington.