Wainuiomata High School Under 15 Rugby team

One of our Senior Youth Workers, Oke, another youth worker, Junior and two of our Gaps students – Jared and Dylan have been working with this team.  The young men have gone from strength to strength and have had some great wins!! They have grown in their attitude, commitment, skill levels and as a team of brothers.
A big thank you to the Four Winds Foundation for their generous donation that has enabled us to purchase training tops and rugby balls for the team.
What a season – congratulations to the players, supporters, family, coaches and the College.

Challenge Holiday Antics!!

Another day in beautiful Wellington! I arrived in Johnsonville ready for work and tried to mentally prepare myself for the day.
Nothing could prepare me for what lay ahead!
I checked through my emails, wrote some case notes and checked in with one of the young guys I mentor.
Suddenly Michaela and Jess burst through the door excitedly proclaiming that they were about to go and ride some animals in the Johnsonville Shopping Centre.
“Sorry what?” I said slightly confused.  “We are off to ride motorised stuffed animals in the Johnsonville Shopping Centre, wanna come?”
I thought about it for all of 2 seconds before packing up my work and heading down to the Shopping Centre.
When we got there we were able to choose our steed. Jess chose a grey elephant, mine was a darker elephant with tusks and Michaela chose the cow.
We spent the next 20 minutes racing (too slowly for my liking) round Johnsonville Shopping Centre, much to the delight and confusion of the many of locals.  We started off with a three way race from the entrance of the Shopping Centre around to Countdown and back.
 Michaela and her cow ended up winning with Jess close behind and myself and Nelly (my elephant’s name) coming in last, a wee way back from the pack.  Oh well!
The rest of the time was spent driving around and interacting with the local shoppers.
What a way to spend Monday morning!!!

Absolutely Fabulous – Movie Fundraiser

Sweetie Darlings, Challenge 2000 is holding a movie fundraiser for the upcoming release of our movie Absolutely Fabulous!!

When: Wednesday 10th August 2016

Where: The Penthouse Cinema and Cafe, Brooklyn

Time: 6pm, movie starts at 6:30pm

Cost: $20 with treats

We will also be running a gold coin raffle on the night!!

Contact: Megan for tickets on either 04 477 6827 or meganratuki@challenge2000.org.nz

Home of Compassion Soup Kitchen Street Day Appeal

Today Wellingtonians are out on the streets seeking donations to support the work of the Wellington Soup Kitchen.  The Soup Kitchen run by the Home of Compassion sisters celebrates 115 years of reaching out to and loving those in need.  Every human being needs help at some stage of their lives.  At the moment there are too many people who don’t have food, shelter, warmth, friendship or love.  The sisters, their employees and volunteers and partners in service and compassion, like Challenge 2000, need your help to make a difference to our most vulnerable citizens.

Today our young people (and a few older ones!) were joined by Justin Lester, Deputy Mayor, who braved the cold to support the Soup Kitchen and do his bit! 🙂  Thanks Justin, you’re awesome!

Kopua Retreat

Eight young people from Masterton, Porirua and Wellington joined Challenge staff and volunteers at the beautiful Monastery in Kopua, just outside the Hawkes Bay, for a three day retreat.

We had a fantastic few days talking and reflecting on the Year of Mercy.  Topics discussed included: “Who Am I”, “Who is God”, “Servant Leadership”.

It was great for the young people and Challenge 2000 to leave reality behind and reconnect back to both themselves and to God.  New and old friendships were formed and strengthened and a new connection has developed between the Companions and the Monks in the Monastery. We thank the Monks at Kopua for allowing us to stay at the beautiful, restful and tranquil Monastery.

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Wellington Community Law Training

Law students at Victoria University have been training Challenge 2000 young people over a number of weeks.  Topics have included employment rights, rental agreements, hire purchase, legal rights and responsibilities, health and sexuality and lots more.

Our Challenge 2000 young people learnt a great deal and related well to the positive, humorous, caring and knowledgeable lawyers to be.

Thanks to the Wellington Community Law Centre for making these training events possible!!

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Breakfast Club at Mana College

Breakfast is served at Mana College!
Have a healthy start to the day! Good chat – Play games – Make pancakes, french toast and other yummy creations.

 Students are welcome to come and hang out (and thaw out) in the warmth every Wednesday morning in Hauroa, 8.30am-9.45am. Screen Shot 2016-06-15 at 11.45.21 am

Health Conference – Tawa College

Challenge 2000 was invited to the 2016 Tawa College Health Conference.  Two Challenge educators went and led a dynamic and interactive discussion with Year 12 and 13 pupils around “What It Means To Be a Leader” and “Being the Hero of Your Own Journey”.

At Challenge 2000, we believe that every young person has the capacity to be great.  We were certainly inspired and excited by the levels of motivation and engagement we found at Tawa College.

Ka Pai!

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Budget Briefings with Finance Minister the Hon Bill English

This week 2 Challenge 2000 Youth Workers, Junior Seumanufagai and Te Po Hohua-Johnstone attended a breakfast presentation hosted by the New Zealand Council of Christian Social Services to discuss the Budget.

Junior said “it was a very informative presentation that helped me to understand what factors impact on the young people I work with.  It was really good to see the big picture.  Bill’s comment made me really want to understand more how programmes are funded in the community and how Government tries to sort problems like housing and poverty today!”

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Aroha Mai, Aroha Atu – Giving Back is Giving Forward

The Youth Week theme this year was ‘Aroha Mai, Aroha Atu – Giving Back is Giving Forward.  The Youth Committee put in lots hours of hard work to make the event a great success. We decided to provide a three course meal for our families in Porirua to say thank you, to acknowledge them and to celebrate our families.  The Committee met four times in the weeks leading up to the event to organise the menu, entertainment and the general layout for the night.

One of our members from the Committee spoke at the dinner and shared what it meant to be a youth today and give back to the community. He spoke on behalf of the Committee sharing how we were all seeds that had been nurtured to become strong trees.  It was great to see some of our future leaders using their talents and mixing with the younger children who attended the dinner.

Some of the feedback we received included:

“My favourite part of the night was meeting new people and reuniting with people I haven’t seen for a long time.”

“I think that the youth were celebrated at this event. It was a lovely introduction about who they are and what they do.”

“Thank you very much for inviting my family and I along we had a great night.”

“My favourite part of the night was playing with the balloons, the bubbles and eating the dessert.” (From a 5 year old)

 

A big thank you to those who supported this event, especially Ara Taiohi and the Tu Hono Marae Whanau.  We look forward to next year’s event and what we can do to make it bigger and better.

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