Andrew | Waimauku
“That’s a really hard question, isn’t it? The more you think about it, the more it changes, and you know, I don’t think, for me, that I need anything more than I actually have.
I work with migrants and refugees, and the more time I spend growing up and getting older, I realise that my need for things diminishes beyond what I already have. I feel that I’m fortunate to have all the things that I’ve got. So in terms of, you know, needs; I think I’m pretty lucky. I don’t really actually need to have anything else than I already do.
I’ve just recently started managing a centre for migrants and refugee, it’s a Government-funded charity that helps the settlement process for migrants and refugees, to help them fit more into society. It’s around English language and up-skilling them to be able to do things for themselves. So it’s giving them the tools to talk to the teacher at school or talk to the doctor to make their own appointments. So making them feel more a part of the communities in which they live, or and for some of them, to break out of the, the communities where they are all working, and then their first language, to be able to use English, to actually, you know, fit more into the community.
Before that I worked with international students and helped them. They came to New Zealand or to go overseas and grow a little bit themselves, to learn more about who they are what their potential could be, and for the programs that we ran as well, it was sort of helping them to see how fortunate they are, and how much they can actually do, and the independence they have by coming to New Zealand by themselves, without their family support, and budgeting for themselves and looking after themselves, and being more of an adult.
That whole thing sort of instilled that interest in helping others and, and then this opportunity came up and it just looks fantastic, and it’s only been since May but I’m really enjoying what we do, because it does seem that what we do as an organisation makes this huge difference in the lives of the people at our class. That flows onto their families and their children, and their communities as well. We work with 680 students just here on the North Shore, but it’s a national organisation, so throughout New Zealand we’re making a difference. So it feels really good to actually be a part of that. We also work with residents and people that have been in New Zealand longer to help the migrants, and actually go out to their homes and help them before they actually get to that second part where they go to a classroom. Yeah, it’s really cool.
A community is somewhere where everybody feels that they belong, and they feel a part of that, but also that they’re valued and able to make a contribution, It’s essentially like an extended family. As opposed to being these little silos or pockets, that community is not, is not assimilation where everyone’s the same; it’s all the different types of cultures that are all coming together, and accepting of one another, and actually understanding a little bit more about each other, which is the great thing about what we do, is we get these different nationalities together, and they learn about each other as well. So it’s great.
The fact that those opportunities to sit down and talk and share and learn from one another, that’s where people actually start to understand a bit more about where this other person is coming from, and why it is they do what it is they do, and actually break down some of those barriers, and break down the stereotypes that people have as well, and they make sort of assumptions and put up walls, or they don’t necessarily listen, because they’re thinking with pre-conceived conceptions about the person that they’re talking to.
It’s one of those things that takes time, and people don’t really have time. They’re kind of, like we used to slow down a little bit, say hi to your neighbour, smile on the street, talk to the person at a bus stop, talk to the person on the street. If there’s more of a community, it’s with that kind of interaction. Put down your phone.”
