“To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.”
This line is from a WWI poem, titled “In Flanders Fields” by John McCrae, written May 1915, shared during a time at reflection at Challenge 2000 to commemorate the sacrifices made in the Battle of Passchendaele (Belgium), on 12 October 1917. The poem sparked a heartfelt discussion that made many of us realize that it is now on all of us to take the torch of hope and peace that has been passed to us. If we don’t keep that torch shining then who else will?
As M. one of our very insightful young people put it, “The soldiers that fought in the war fought to change our future and now it’s up to us to keep the peace and love going through each of us. To me, it is a hope for coming generations.”
Keeley Grevatt, a Challenge 2000 Youth Worker and former Gap Year student (2016) is one of 14 young people currently representing New Zealand as a Defence Force Youth Ambassador, at this year’s commemoration of the 100th anniversary of The Battle of Passchendaele (for more on Keeley’s story click here).
We have been sharing Keeley’s stories on our Facebook Page and are proud to remember those who served and died at the awful battle at Passchendaele.
Today to remember those who served and died, we will participate in the national commemorative programme that will be held at Wellington’s Pukeahu National War Memorial. We will also commit ourselves to service and making sacrifices for the benefit of all.
Ka maumahara tonu tātou ki a rātou./ We will remember them.
Keeley at a war memorial in Belgium
Challenge 2000 at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park for the Battle of Passchendaele Commemoration
During the holidays, young people from the Wellington Region have the opportunity to be involved in a wide range of fun and educational programmes put on by Challenge 2000. Two weeks off school can be a bit difficult and boring time for some students and so Challenge provides a range of engaging and exciting programmes throughout the holidays as a solution. Development, leadership, fun, widening horizons and service are the focus of the programmes:
Hutt Valley: During the first week of the holidays Challenge 2000 youth workers are running a two day programme for intermediate and college students from Naenae and Taita schools. Creative, reflective and positive group activities will focus on building relationships, a sense of belonging, developing independence and teamwork, as well as a trip to the pool and gym to keep everyone on their toes.
Hawke’s Bay:Loads of fun activities, including horse back riding and a trip to the hot pools await the lucky ones headed to camp in Napier this week. During the time the group will focus on learning about the whanau concept and how to contribute towards a functioning family. Communication, history, relationships and fun in the sun – that’s what we are hoping for.
Walk NZ: Group 1: A number of our young people are joining Finn Egan as he walks the central north island to raise funds for Roar4PNG, an organization battling sex and domestic violence set to build a women’s refuge in Papua New Guinea. Finn and the C2K whanau are walking across ice and snow, putting their endurance to the ultimate test and learning some valuable lessons:
Put much, much lighter stuff in your pack!
Look after your feet! Large blisters will not just slow you down but stop you from walking all together!
Meet blisters’ friend: Chafing– will also make life difficult!
I am not alone – support is on the way: The 2nd group of young people will join the adventure along the Whanganui River soon.
Kayak Wellington Region: (Walk NZ Group 2): A C2K group will be challenging themselves even further by kayaking down the Whanganui River in Canadian kayaks and will camp alongside the river bank (weather depending) or break for the night in DOC huts. If you’d like to sponsor one of our young people or would like to donate some much needed (waterproofing) gear we’d love to hear from you, please contact Kitty here.
Service: Some of our young people will be out and about giving of their holiday time serving the community in a variety of ways: clearing sections, mowing lawns, facilitating workshops for kapa haka, cooking bbq’s, singing and painting and more.
Kaikoura: A highly dedicated and experienced team of Challenge 2000 social workers, youth workers and volunteers will travel to the South Island to facilitate a 1-week-programme designed to accommodate 30 high school students. The programme will focus on topics to help young people thrive: “Be brave, be free, be powerful, be you.” and have enough flexibility for spontaneous jam sessions, or a round of table tennis and pool throughout the week. (Challenge has worked closely with local agencies and the city council to support the communities that have been heavily affected by November’s earth quake and we feel blessed tremendously by the relationships that have grown ever since.)
Challenge 2000, ACC and SAPN together recently facilitated a “Mates & Dates” multi-year programme at Mana College. It was taught to Years 9-13 in weekly 50-minute sessions over the course of five weeks.
Jan Love and Molly Lyons, Challenge 2000’s social workers, are based at Mana College and know first hand how important the SAPN’s work is. They explain: “Mates & Dates is run in the schools’ health classes, it’s completely free and it’s meant to get the message out there at a younger age, rather than waiting till university age. Sometimes young people just don’t know what is appropriate, especially in areas where there are high statistics of sexual violence and many kids may have grown up with it.” Having Challenge 2000 social workers, a whanau worker and Youth Workers attend these classes with the students allow support to be there if memories are triggered and the students find the input challenging.
Molly gave an overview of the programme – “We start by talking about various aspects of sexual violence and how to prevent it, what a safe relationship is and what it isn’t, what is friendly and what’s more than friendly.” Recent reports stemming from surveys conducted by New Zealand Union of Students Associations (NZUSA) have shown that there are many students, predominantly female, within tertiary education throughout the nation who say that they feel unsafe on campuses. “We are working to change that for our future generations of students,” Ms Lyon continued, “by educating our kids early on and helping them get rid of any unhealthy views about their own sexuality or gender roles in general which they might have been exposed to and have taken on themselves.”
Challenge 2000 Mana Social Worker Jan says “that this programme was valuable and the students were very receptive to the input. It also resulted in follow up and open and frank discussion with some students”.
Nina Ness our Social Work Practice Manager says “The success of this programme will hopefully lead to Challenge 2000 partnering with other colleges and community groups to ensure young people can have healthy and positive, life giving relationships.”
If you have questions, or if you or someone you know has been affected by sexual violence, or if you would like to support the network and/or start integrating the courses into your curriculum, please don’t hesitate to contact SAPN in one of the following ways:
For 24 hour crisis support in Wellington, contact Sexual Abuse HELP Foundation on (04) 801 6655. For all other enquiries call us on (04) 801 8975. You may also contact the programme coordinator by e-mailing info@sexualabuseprevention.org.nz.
Keeley Grevatt, a Challenge 2000 Youth Worker and former Gap Year student (2016) will represent New Zealand as a Defence Force Youth Ambassador at this year’s commemoration of the 100th anniversary of The Battle of Passchendaele, on 12 October 2017.
In 2016 Keeley attended the Limited Service Volunteer (LSV) programme, a six-week motivational, personal development programme run by the New Zealand Defence Force.
Building upon her experience at Challenge 2000, Keeley utilized her time as LSV to grow in the areas of team building, time management and the assessment of her own strengths and weaknesses, as well as those of others. “We all found it difficult and had to lean on each other because of it. I couldn’t have done the journey without the other trainees,” acknowledged Keeley when thinking about how a deeper appreciation of other people’s stories became one of her biggest gains at LSV.
She completed the course with a “Peer’s Choice Award” for her commitment and teamwork within her platoon, the “Top Trainee of the Platoon Award”, as well as the “Patron’s Choice Award”. This is the award for the top trainee for the whole company. Keeley recalls, “It was such an honour to march the whole company off the parade grounds. It was an experience I will never forget. I cried a lot, my dad cried, my whole family cried a lot… It was such an overwhelming, humbling experience to be called up to accept all these awards. Challenge 2000 turned up in big numbers on my graduation day and I was happy to see familiar faces after a long 6 weeks. I felt very,very lucky. I am really grateful for everyone that came to celebrate my graduation day with me.”
The journey did not stop there. Earlier this year, Keeley received a call that she had been nominated as the Youth Ambassador for New Zealand and that, if successful in being selected, she would travel to Belgium alongside the NZDF to commemorate the battle of Passchendaele at The New Zealand National Commemoration for the Battle of Passchendaele. Thus began another step in the Journey as Keeley soon embarks on this opportunity of a lifetime.
Our new Youth Ambassador will arrive at the Ohakea Air Force Training Base on September 25, for a 5-day training programme where she will spend time with the other 14 youth ambassadors and Defence Force personnel whom she is travelling with as they prepare for the trip away. “I feel so fortunate to have been chosen to go on this trip and experience everything that it entails. I really want to emphasise the reason behind this incredible opportunity I’ve been given– and that is the Battle of Passchendaele. New Zealand is such a small country and to think that thousands of our young soldiers, as many as 845 New Zealanders were killed and over 2000 wounded in a single day. The loss of so many lives and the effect of their loss and pain on those at home is no small matter. The whole of New Zealand was affected by this tragedy. So was my own family. We had a number of family members who fought in this battle. This time is part of our history as a nation and can teach us many lessons.”
While on leave from Challenge 2000, Keeley’s journey will lead her across Australia, Dubai and Greece before arriving in Belgium where she will spend several weeks. It’s all fuel for a young woman’s dream to join the Defence Force as an Officer in the Army and the hard work ahead of her is only making her more determined. “This just goes to show how being open to doors of opportunity willingly, can lead you to amazing places that you never even dreamed of walking to and through. To think that I started out as a Gap Year student at Challenge 2000 only a year ago is so surreal.”
Challenge 2000 is incredibly proud to have an inspiring young woman like Keeley as part of our whanau and we celebrate her success and development.
We look forward to hearing Keeley’s stories and to have the lives of those who served and died at Passchendaele remembered and honoured at Challenge 2000, one hundred years later.
Ka maumahara tonu tātou ki a rātou./ We will remember them.
In celebration of Social Justice Week, Challenge 2000 welcomed high school students of inner city Wellington and the surrounding region to our new home at Wanaka Street to enjoy a shared meal and reflect on this past week dedicated to the theme of “Weaving Bonds of Belonging and Getting to Know Our Neighbours”.
Guest speaker Matalena Leaupepe visited the group of about 30 young people giving insights into her career as a public servant. Then it was time for the group to head out into Wellington’s streets to observe nightlife– as an opportunity to make connections with those sitting in the streets, the homeless, the lonely and/or those just wanting a chat.
The group later returned to our Wanaka Street Chapel for a marae-style-overnighter expecting to be woken up bright and early the next day to bake cookies and create a short drama for the residents of Johnsonvale Home, a home for the elderly within our Johnsonville Community. The event was concluded back at Challenge 2000, checking-in on everyone’s experiences through out an entire week that featured a movie night and a cookie-making event for our youngest ones amongst other things), as well as a brief reflection on the experiences gathered during the final weekend of Social Justice Week. Our thanks to those who participated and made this week possible! We look forward to seeing you for Social Justice Week 2018!
[blockquote author=”” link=”” target=”_blank”]”Nāu te rourou, nāku te rourou, ka ora ai te iwi”. (With your basket of food and my basket of food the people will be fed.) [/blockquote]
The Bishop Viard College U15 Girls Rugby Team competed in this week’s Hurricanes Tournament organized by Wellington Rugby. Teams from Hastings, Ngāti Porou and the Wellington region competed in the two-day event. The BVC team was supported by Challenge 2000 Nicole Simson (Youth Worker), Coach Jesse Gerard (Youth Worker) and many students that came out to show their support.
The girls had come together as a team only several weeks ago with very different levels of experiences. After a rough start on Monday the girls were able to find their rhythm and confidence, showing up with a positive attitude on Tuesday. With amazing focus and team spirit the girls were able to come away with a hard fought for win against Naenae College, 15-10.
To top things off, the girls had the opportunity to meet with two Black Ferns and snapped a few pics to remember this awesome surprise meet-and-greet.
One of the players, Ocean, was awarded the MVP title for the team. Go BVC!
The team roughing it out.
Posing with the Black Ferns’ Trophy.
The BSV team with coach Jesse (back row, middle) and supporters from Challenge 2000.
