Category: Challenge 2000

Mums Group

Challenge 2000 staff and some mums have developed an exciting mutual support and development group to assist mums to share skills and love and learn about new awesome ways to build a home for their tamariki.

This group meets every Monday and Tuesday for input and playgroup, engages in other exciting learning opportunities, plan and organise outings, attend community based lectures and examine opportunities for employment and education.  All in all it’s great.  Felise and Heath collect the mums and children from all around the place and they are pretty good chauffeurs.

Kitty led an exciting session on the Hero’s Journey and what helps and hinders us in life.  The question time was great and we covered all sorts of secret and amazing topics – just as well we have a confidentiality ground rule!

Also big thanks to the people who have sponsored car seats for the children and for the Paraparaumu businessman who sponsored nappies!  It makes all the difference!!

Anyone else who would like to provide support to our group please phone Nina Ness 022 069 9039 or anyone at Challenge 2000.

Mums group Heath 2

Heath and kids working together!

 

Children’s Day Celebrations!

 

Children’s Day Celebrations Johnsonville March 2013

Celebrate Our Children was the theme for the Day at Challenge 2000 in Johnsonville.

Following the Children’s Day Service in the neighbouring church Ss Peter & Paul, children, young people, mums and dads, grandads, nanas, uncles and aunties gathered for Kai, games, fun and community.

80 children participated with energy, laughs, hopes, risk taking of differing sorts!! and the natural innocence and exuberance of childhood.  At least 8 different cultures were represented!  What richness.  With a bouncy castle, water slide and face painting set up there was excitement in the air. After a big barbeque feast for lunch the children, took part in apple bobbing, three legged and egg and spoon races for a little bit of friendly competition. Even the parents, Challenge staff and Gap Students were able to embrace their inner child. The message of Children’s Day is treasure our kids and to recognise the gift that they are to us. The day was a huge success, with everyone, kids, parents and caregivers, leaving with big smiles!  It was an awesome event – the photos say it all!

Please help us to continue supporting children by donating money, goods, food, furniture or by sponsoring a whole family!!

007

DSC03871

 

DSC03921

 

DSC03974

 

2013 Gap Year

Gap Year 2013 has kicked off!  For the past eight years Challenge 2000 has taken on school leavers from all across the country for a year of growth; professionally and personally. This year we have four students from Wellington; Courtney, Siata, Junior and Damien, and four from out of town; Jacob from Dunedin, Hakaraia and Anna from Levin, and Anya from Tauranga. The Challenge 2000 message is out there in Aotearoa and there are people who are willing to answer the call!

Gaps 2013

For further information on about the Gappies go to “Youth” – Gap Year 2013

Holiday Fun 2013

Challenge 2000 has had an awesome start to 2013! Thanks to Pub Charity and the Wellington City Council our young people and staff have been able to get out and about in Wellington and there is more to come!

In January, young people from all over the Wellington Region came together to take part in a range of organised sports activities. We spent three days at The ASB Sport Centre in Kilbirnie playing a huge range of sports; including soccer, basketball, tennis, hockey, volleyball, netball and badminton. The range of sports allowed everyone to give some new sports a go and some hidden talents have certainly been discovered! The competition was pretty fierce and it was great to see everyone so actively involved. We had some awesome weather so we were lucky enough to get up to Mt Victoria for lunch one day and enjoyed the view of our great city.

The group also went swimming at Keith Spry Pool where we had multiple competitions. The synchronised swimming was won by the girls despite the boy’s strong challenge and the biggest and smallest splash in the dive pool was hotly contested as was the best handstand competition. Challenge 2000 staff then cooked lunch on the barbecue before heading down to the Johnsonville Community Centre. To finish up the day everyone got their poker faces on for a few games of Mafia.

It’s been awesome to see the young people’s confidence growing and some leadership skills being displayed. What’s more Challenge 2000 still has more to come.  Watch this space!!  If you’re keen to come along give Ben, Jeff or Thérèse a call at Challenge on 477 0045.

DSC03821  DSC03736

DSC03813

Christmas Greetings

Christmas

THANK YOU to all the people, whanau, groups, families and businesses that have supported our work with and for young people, families and communities in 2012. May

We also thank all our fantastic young people who have worked so hard to become who they are capable of becoming.

 

 

 

 

“We must not seek the child Jesus in the pretty figures of our Christmas cribs. We must seek him among the undernourished children who have gone to bed at night with nothing to eat”

~ Archbishop Oscar Romero

 

December

We wish everyone a very safe and happy Christmas Holiday!!

IMG_1490

 Hopefully you find time to stop and smell the roses.

WANTED: CHRISTMAS BENEFACTORS

Please help us to provide some summer employment for keen young people

We have young people who are keen to work…we have community jobs for them to do under the guidance of our missions man Felise.

Service workWe need a generous benefactor or seven to make some small donations so we can pay them to work. What a great Christmas present that would be!! Young people working for a month – having a purpose – earning some money – benefiting the community.

We would be really grateful if you could possibly make a donation towards these workers wages.

Alternatively, if you need something done around your house, or garden you could employ this able bodied, highly talented team and they’ll be there to help you!

 

Our bank account details are: Challenge 2000, 01-0519-0057660-00

Or else….please contact Felise on 04 477 0338, or 021 920 046 or Paula on 04 477 6827

Please help us at Christmas Time!

2012 has been a hard year for lots of people – some more than others. There are many families and individuals struggling and the pressures, expectations and glitter of the festive season often makes it worse.  Some of us are fortunate to have enough and to be able to reflect, relax and enjoy presents and the presence of friends and family.  Many can’t and don’t.

Currently we have around 40 families who need additional support – anything we can possibly offer them…they are:

  • young parents renting on low incomes
  • people who have been forced to the margins of society due to poverty and mental illness   Santas hands full
  • young people who put their trust in people who have let them down
  • single mums with a partner in jail
  • young parents with a car that needs fixing and petrol to get around
  • youth who are alienated form their families
  • Refugee families new to our country with very few contacts and resources

……the list goes on……

Please help us to help these families……we are here working with our people 24/7/52 weeks per year…please support our work…WE NEED YOU!!

If you could possibly spare a few food items (especially fresh food such as vegetables, fruit and meat), or would like to buy some Christmas presents for families, or could possibly donate money or vouchers we would be incredibly grateful. We can come and pick anything up in the Wellington Region.

Our bank account details are:  Challenge 2000 – 01-0519-0057660-00

I know that there are many people struggling this year, so please know that if it is not possible for you to make a donation, there is no pressure or expectation – we can always benefit from prayers and/or good wishes (whichever fits with you!).

Thank you for all your support in 2012 – your efforts either big or small are appreciated by the staff and people of Challenge 2000.

Best wishes for Christmas

Community Christmas Parade

On Saturday 1 December 2012, Challenge 2000 participated in the Johnsonville Lions Christmas Parade.  The theme we chose was “Beacons of Hope”.

In this Christmas Season we aspire to be beacons of hope to all with whom we come in contact with, be if for assistance of any kind, a listening ear, for help in a difficult situation etc.  Our dream is also that our society become more of a beacon of hope, than a wall blocking people out.  Staff, friends and families spent considerable time working on the float and their costumes, being gifts of peace, hope, joy …  and many hundreds of local Johnsonville families who lined the streets delighted in their handiwork.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saint Patrick’s College Retreat

Challenge 2000 ran retreats for the Year 10 students at Saint Patrick’s College in Kilbirnie from Wednesday 14th to Friday 16thof November. These focused on the theme of social justice and raising the students’ awareness of this topic. It also helped the students to realise their own abilities to make a difference within their school and in New Zealand in general.

The mornings were focused on introducing aspects of social justice and injustice to the boys. This included a long discussion on the need for equality in the world and incorporated the idea of poverty in New Zealand. To visualise this, Heath asked for ten volunteers to come up to the front of the group and showed them ten chocolates in a bag. The boys agreed that the fair thing to do would be to give each of them a chocolate. Heath then distributed the chocolates how the wealth of New Zealand would be in real life. This was met with shock when the last five boys had to fight over just one chocolate between them, while the first one had five to himself. It was great to see the chocolates then being shared around so that all had one. It made the boys think about the real life applications of the activity and the hardship that many face on a day-to-day basis.

After lunch, the students got to get up and be involved in some fun activities. These activities focused on their team building, leadership, and communication skills, followed by some discussion on how aspects of social justice in the real world were reflected by how the boys handled the challenges they were presented.

 

 

The days finished off with the groups coming back together for a calm and reflective liturgy before everyone dashed off to catch the school bus home.

It was great to see the effort and willingness of the boys to participate in everything that was put in front of them, as well as the support they showed each other throughout the three days.