Life-size cardboard children will appear in Tauranga tomorrow to highlight the community responsibility to keep children safe from abuse.

Buddy Day is New Zealand's third annual child abuse awareness day held in Auckland, Wellington, Hamilton and Tauranga.

The Governor-General, Lt Gen Rt Hon Sir Jerry Mateparae, with students from Northland School and Sir Jerry's Buddy Skye. Photo: Government House.

Footsteps, a business dedicated to educating and protecting all children, will have staff throughout the country sharing the message, as they move about in communities accompanied by 75 cardboard cutouts called ‘buddies'.

CEO Kevin Christie says Footsteps values children as unique individuals and its staff promote the imperative to understand a child's self-worth comes from their sense of belonging, and believing they are capable, valued, and worthwhile.

He says this lays the foundation for a positive future for the child.

'Unfortunately Kiwis find it incredibly difficult to talk about child abuse, but it takes an entire community to keep a child safe.

'Every adult has a part to play in making child abuse unacceptable in our society, so by taking our ‘buddies' to all corners of the community, we aim to highlight the fact that child abuse is happening all around us, in everyday settings; we all need to be aware of it and speak up for children.”

In Tauranga, Footsteps' staff, with their buddies, will actively be visiting a number of key businesses, public facilities, including libraries, parks, retail stores, community centres and government organisations.

The buddies will remain in the community for two weeks and people are encouraged to come and say hello and get involved wherever they see them.

'We believe actions speak louder than words, and we are therefore proud to support Buddy Day 2013 by physically carrying this message into our communities nationwide.”

Buddy Day event manager Janine Evans says the day is about the community coming together in a fun way to acknowledge every adult has a part to play in protecting children from abuse.

'Our key message is: if you are worried about a child, speak up.”

One of the first people to sign up for a Buddy this year was the Governor-General Lt Gen Rt Hon Sir Jerry Mateparae.

Earlier this week Sir Jerry was presented his buddy, Skye, at a special event at Government House for the children from Northland School who created her.

Skye has been accompanying Sir Jerry to meetings and events throughout the week.

Janine says Child Matters is honoured to have the support and involvement of His Excellency for Buddy Day, which she said has inspired more of the country's leaders to get involved.

'Requests for buddies have rolled in from around the country - and that's sign New Zealand adults want to do more to prevent child abuse.”

She says people adopting buddies come from all walks of life, including architects, chefs, bankers, GPs, teachers and business and community leaders.

The Buddy Day Facebook page will be updated throughout the day, and people not participating in Buddy Day can follow it at www.facebook.com/buddydaynz