Issue 27 December 2014

Migrants Down Under

job.

It was all made possible by a major philan-thropic organisation, the TODD FOUNDATION. Their vision of “inclusive communities where all families, children and young people can thrive and contribute” closely parallels that of the Migrants Centre. The Todd Foundation has put their money where their vision is. Their

funding covered all aspects of the seminars. They support, pri-marily, children, young people, families and communities.

The programme was broadly designed to build leadership in the migrant communities of Christchurch. The earthquakes

“MIGRANTS DOWN UNDER”

Welcome to the newsletter of Christchurch

Migrants Centre, “Migrants Down Under”.

This newsletter brings updates about the

programmes and efforts being made by migrant

communities and service agencies in Christchurch and Canterbury.

Christchurch Migrants Centre Trust would like to share migrants’ stories with you.

CHRISTCHURCH MIGRANTS CENTRE NEWSLETTER

166 ST ASAPH ST, PO BOX 836, CHRISTCHURCH 8140

PHONE 03 366 1379 OR 03 366 1315

www.migranthub.org.nz

kevin@cmctrust.org.nz

Forward this to your friends!

What’s Inside?

My JP Experience| Immigration Advisors Authorities | Diwali 2014 | Lincoln Festival 2014

The Year of the “Hand Up” | The “Hands On” Year | Pegasus Scholarship Awards

Kiwis use the expression “Hand Up” when someone is assisted, and taught how, to manage something them-selves.

The year 2014 has been a great “Hand Up’ experience for over 30 migrant community groups in Christchurch. They have participated in the extensive series of Leadership sem-inars at the Christchurch Migrants Centre.

These took a lot of time and effort to put together, especial-ly for the Centre’s Community Liaison Manager, Kevin Park. The concept was developed in collaboration with a kauma-tua (elders) group representing many of the significant play-ers in the City’s migrant community scene. The participation rates in the seminars showed that they had done a great

The year of the “Hand Up”

2010 and 2011 showed the benefits of leadership which could access mainstream services.

A document simply entitled “Lessons Learned”, which was written after the earthquakes, (refer to www.migranthub.org.nz) showed clearly that in disasters the “one size fits all” response system no longer fits New Zea-land’s multicultural population.

Migrant populations need to be better equipped to support themselves in both disaster response management and as community conduits for settlement support.

Todd Foundation’s support has gone a long way to allowing this to occur. The work of the Migrants Centre has added to that.

Seminars this year covered several main themes; each had one to three seminars open to migrant community leaders. These evening sessions ran from late April until late November.

All were chaired by Kevin, assisted by Rex Gibson, and provided respected outside experts to build on the migrant leaders’ skill base. The seminar series major topics were Legal Entity matters and funding, understanding the Health System and current health issues, understanding the New Zealand business environment, and “Effective Leadership”.

The evaluation responses were hugely positive. The demand for more was great. The Todd Foundation has agreed to fund a further series in 2015. The emphasis will be slightly different. A new theme has been added. Two series of seminars will initially run concurrently. One will be for the established community leaders, and one for aspiring youth leaders.

This will be followed by workshops to merge the two groups. The aim is to give each participating commu-nity a succession plan with youth incorporated in the building of community strength. It is an exciting con-cept for all involved; the Todd foundation, the Christ-church Migrants Centre, and the migrant community groups.

The Centre’s thanks go to the presenters: Ruby Tiavolo (CCC), Sally Latham (DIA), Valda Cordes (Rotary International), Louise Edwards and Bridget frame (Canterbury Trust) Kerry McFetridge (Vodafone NZ Foundation, John Harrington (Canterbury Youth Works), Wayne Reid (Pegasus Health), Maria Fresia (Interpreting Canterbury), Anthony Patterson (Electoral Commission), Shah Wali Atayee ( National Health and Disability service), Lynne Taylor (Diabetes Centre), Harata franks (Breast screening South), Chris Jones (Prostate cancer Foundation), Bill Jang (Hepatitis C Resource Centre), Jacqui Morriss (Community Respiratory Service), Chris Jones (South- west Insurance), a chartered accountant Grant Rae, Lulette Carnie (Chch Small Business Centre), Moka Ritchie (Canterbury Community Law), Simon Gerathy (FIFA World Cup Under 20), Darryn Thompson (IRD), Weng-Kei Chen (Federation of Multicultural Council), Rex Gibson (Chch Migrants Centre), Jimmy Chen (Chch City Councillor), Ngaire Button (former Deputy Mayor), Anne-Marie Reynolds (NZ Red Cross) and Archna Tandon (Christchurch Multicultural Council). All these respected individuals gave their time and knowledge for the benefit of the migrant leaders. On the leaders’ behalf we thank them sincerely.

Funding

Business

Health

Leadership

Early in 2015

Migrants Centre Staff selected five groups to participate in “in

-depth” (hands on) workshops to build the capacity of their migrant community group.

These in-depth capacity building sessions were put together by the Migrants Centre’s staff and managed largely by the Community Liaison Manager, Kevin Park.

Everybody has a different learning style. For some its visual, others auditory and others are what the experts call “kinaesthetic”. The latter being those of us who have to do something before we fully understand it. When English is the language of instruction, and it is not your home language, the “doing it” is often best.

The workshops were all about “hands on” (doing it).

The project was only possible because of the support of the Tindall Foundation. This philanthropic foundation is very much the “baby” of the Tindall family; the founders of the Warehouse chain of family stores.

This foundation focuses on social and environmental needs. In just 20 years it has supported 5,000 organisations across the country. Capacity building has been a major theme in their grant allocations and over $2.7 million has gone out through their Canterbury Earthquakes Recovery Fund.

In the workshops the small groups (representatives from each of the 5 communities) sat around a large table with the visiting experts and worked through actual or model scenarios. Each workshop was related to a key infra-structure building need.

The “Hands On” year

The evaluation workshop at the end of the year was very revealing and encouraging. The reported “best sessions” were those where the participants were most involved.

Learning the intricacies of the New Zealand’s bureaucra-cies is a bit like the quests in the Lord of the Rings movies. There are lots of adventures, many of them quite scary.

The workshop topics were: 1. Constitutions. This was approached from two perspectives. Management guru Eric Livingstone gave advice on pre-submitted constitu-tions and Department of Internal Affairs officer, Sally Latham covered key aspects of their legal entity status; guiding them through the material available on various websites.

Topic number 2 was accounting requirements. The group worked through a wide variety of accounting scenarios. We were fortunate enough to enlist account-ant Terry Rolston; a veteran of many community groups’ accounts over a long career.

This year’s graduates from the Tindall Foundation workshop programme were presented with Course

Completion Certificates by the Christchurch Migrant Centre Trust’s Chairperson, George Clark. The

organisations honoured were from the Mexican, Indonesian, Cambodian, Singaporean, and Nigerian

communities of Christchurch. Their pride in receiving these awards was very evident.

Legal Entity

Topic 3 was Govern-ance and Strategic Planning. Trust Chair-man, George Clark managed these. George has many years of working with commercial and community groups on these very topics.

Topic 4 was “Completing Funding Applications”. Liz Stephen-son (Dept of Internal affairs). “Hands on” practice was valuable here in more ways than one! Her session was also

rated “very, very good”.

Ken Howat of the Christchurch City Council Events Team excited the participants also. Ken covered the processes involved in successfully planning a community event. The community groups

were made aware of a raft of supports that are potentially available in running their cultural and sporting activities.

The Migrant Centre’s Rex Gibson drew the job of covering meeting procedure. Despite the topic it was fun as the group dealt with a mock, somewhat hilarious, meeting situation and learned to follow correct meeting procedure in solving a tricky issue. The hand-outs substituted for the need to keep notes.

Eduardo Sandoval, of Canterbury University, managed an exciting workshop on communication systems. The simple things like designing an effective poster became a fun activity. The session covered print, social media and all the other internet communication and catered for both 20th and 21st Century systems.

Katherine Peet from Network Waitangi Otautahi held everyone’s attention for her entire session. Most migrants readily identify with Maori as fellow minori-ty group members and this group participated to the fullest. Their thirst for more information is almost insatiable. The Centre is planning an overnight marae visit as a follow up.

The final workshop was a two hour evaluation session. It was exciting and informative and laid a good foundation for next year where another seven groups will be given the chance to participate. The Tindall Foundation has agreed to continue supporting this work until the end of 2015. If your migrant com-munity group wishes to be considered for one of the places in 2015 you must make application to kevin@cmctrust.org.nz as soon as possible.

Governance

Event management Treaty-based Multiculturalism

Communication

-- Wayne Reid,

Refugee and Migrant Health Manager

Pegasus Health (Charitable) Ltd

Pegasus Health (Charitable) Ltd has offered health scholarships to Maori and Pasifika applicants for a number

of years. In recognition of Christchurch’s changing population demographics, for the first time, Pegasus has offered

nursing scholarships to those from migrant and refugee backgrounds. It is vital that our workforce reflects our popula-

tion; more so in health where language and culture remain significant barriers to access. As well as qualifying as nurses,

graduates from non-English speaking backgrounds bring linguistic and cultural skills into the health arena.

As part of the application

process, each applicant wrote a

1,000 word essay. Reading these

was both humbling and

rewarding.

The final decision was not easy.

The awards were presented to:

Ade George (Nigerian); Second

year nursing student at CPIT. “I

chose this path in search of life-

changing events, to touch lives of

others by either a great measure

or unnoticed, to care for and give

in ways that utilises my natural

strength and benefits others.”

Ai Niida (Japanese); Second year

nursing student at CPIT. “Meeting a group of Japanese Red Cross nurses – sent to support Japanese migrants affected

by the Canterbury Earthquakes – inspired me with their professionalism, commitment and skill, reinforcing my desire to

pursue a life-changing nursing career.”

Nida Alizadah (Afghani); Second year nursing student at CPIT. “Ever since I embarked on a life full of peace and opportu-

nities in New Zealand, I have always dreamt of being capable of giving back to my society what it gifted me, hope. New

Zealand truly is beautiful by its people as well as its freedom and security for an individual to pursuer his/her ambitions.

My goal, after having obtained my degree, is to serve the Canterbury public by practicing as a nurse in a major health

centre engaged in people’s wellbeing, participating in research or any other means of assistance.”

Anna Inhwa Lee (Korean); Third year nursing student at CPIT. “Many of them [Korean migrants] do not receive or

receive less effective services such as immunisations, screenings and education, either due to lack of knowledge and/or

language barrier. As a nursing student I see the importance of health promotion, protection, education and illness

prevention. These minor services can make significant changes to individual’s and their family’s life. Also I know how

effective primary health care service can prevent individuals from use of secondary and tertiary health systems.”

Refugee and Migrant Peoples

November 18th 2014

Pegasus Scholarship Awards

Andrew Ai Ade Inhwa Nida Natu Vince (CEO)

In 2014, New Zealand Justices of the Peace are completing 200 years of service to the community.

Migrants need to use the services of JPs for many purposes. The first appointment of a Justice in New Zealand was in 1814 when missionary Thomas Kendall was appointed as a Justice. Since then thousands of JPs have provided a dedicated service to the community.

Whether for attesting photocopies of qualification certificates, work experience documents etc. or for completing declarations, for example, for inviting / sponsoring family members to visit New Zealand, migrants use services of JP quite regularly.

It has been a privilege for me to serve as a Justice of Peace, and to give something back to the community. I narrate some personal thoughts and experiences:

I once got a call from a person who was located in another town, 80 km away! He explained that he had tried several JPs in his town but had not succeeded in securing an appointment. I commented that he was welcome at my place, but perhaps I could find a JP nearer to him. A few phone calls and half-an-hour later, I rang him and provided him contact details of a JP within minutes from his place. His glee cannot be expressed in words!

On another occasion, I offered to meet a client at 7 am at my place, due to the urgency of the situation. He could not believe that it was possible to get “JP work” done at such an early hour.

A “difficult” transaction I recall is when I helped a client with (marriage) separation documents. At such times, I need to remind myself that as a JP, I was simply assisting someone with the due legal process, and that any emotional feelings are perhaps uncalled for.

For me, the best part of being a JP is that you become a part of so many people’s lives, and – more importantly – there is no money involved in the entire transaction. People from many cultures actually find it hard to believe that one get a big volume of documents dealt with absolutely free.

The Royal Federation of New Zealand Justices’ Association is the national body for 29 regional member associations throughout New Zealand, which represents around 7000 JPs.

More information: http://www.jpfed.org.nz/ Shirish Paranjape, JP Member,

Canterbury Justices of the Peace Association Inc.

My experience as a Justice of Peace

If you need New Zealand immigration

advice, you must use a licensed

immigration adviser or an exempt person. Licensed advisers have specialist expertise and have met competency

standards. They also follow a professional code of conduct that requires them to be honest, professional and

respectful, provide you with ongoing timely updates and charge fees that are fair and reasonable.

There are some exempt people who don’t need to hold a licence to give immigration advice. They include New Zealand

lawyers, Community Law Centre staff, and people outside New Zealand who only provide advice on student visas. If you

want immigration advice from a Canterbury-based adviser, you can view our register of licensed advisers on our

website here - type Canterbury in the location field: http://www.iaa.govt.nz/adviser-register

A licensed adviser can help you explore your visa options, choose the right visa and prepare your visa application. They

can also help you settle in New Zealand, assess whether you can appeal a declined visa and assess your options if you

are in New Zealand unlawfully. Licensed advisers vary in expertise, the fees they charge and the level of service they

offer. You might like to speak to a few advisers before you decide which one best meets your needs.

If you are concerned about someone giving immigration advice without a licence, we urge you to contact us at the

Immigration Advisers Authority as soon as possible. You can be assured that contacting us will not affect your immigra-

tion status. You can contact us by phoning 0508 422 422 or email us – info@iaa.govt.nz

We recently produced a simple guide about licensed immigration advisers in five languages, which can be downloaded

from our website here: http://www.iaa.govt.nz/migrant/index.asp

A word from the Immigration Advisers Authority

An ancient Hindu festival, Diwali , also known as

the Festival of Lights, celebrates the triumph of light over darkness and the renewal of life. Singa-pore Airline Diwali 2015 was a great success in celebrating the triumph of New Zealand's rich and quality cultural diversity.

The darkness of Christ-church Horncastle Arena explained and symbolized triumph of light over darkness and wisdom over ignorance, by a lot of bright lamps, candles and fire-works at the event. It was a true spectacle of lighting, music, crafts, performances and food.

The event was organized by the Indian Social and Cultural Club (ISCC) but it was not just to show off the Indian cultural splendour, but it was something of great pride for many of Christchurch/Cantabrians.

The success of Diwali festival owes a great amount to the time and energy of huge number of volunteers. Along with those organizers, The Mi-grant Centre congratulates the ISCC, sponsors, all participants and volunteers for adding spice, flavour and taste to make the event such an entertainment and “culture galore” experience.

Diwali 2014

The Rotary Club of Lincoln’s 8th Lincoln Multicul-tural Festival held on Saturday 18th October at the Lincoln Event Centre celebrated the region’s growing cultural diversity. The event was opened to the community by the Selwyn Mayor Kelvin Coe. Minister and Selwyn MP Amy Adams along with Christchurch Migrant Centre Trust Manager Rex Gibson, and Lincoln Rotary Club President Kingsley Clark acknowledged the growing diverse nature of migrant communities and their contri-butions. We had a record number of groups who participated in the display and stage performance categories says Surinder Tandon, Convener - Lincoln Multicultural Festival. Cultural groups which participated in this annual event first time included Korean Percussion Group (Samulnori), Lincoln University International Club, a Greek band, Lincoln Primary School’s Mandarin Group, Lincoln High School’s new international groups and Pakistan. Information and art-and-craft stalls were from Down by the Liffey Gallery, Lincoln and Districts Community Care Association, Human Rights Commission NZ, Christchurch Migrant Centre Trust, Christchurch Multicultural Council, Network Waitangi Otautahi, English Language Partners Christchurch. NZ Police, Shakti and Vietnam.

More than 300 people enjoyed this colourful multicultural festival, which was finished with the singing of the New Zealand national anthem and afternoon tea. This event was supported by the Selwyn District Council, Ray White Lincoln, and Rotary Club of Lincoln.

-- Surinder Tandon, Convener,

Lincoln Multicultural Festival, Rotary Club of Lincoln

Indian Cultural Group presents Bollywood Summers Fest 2014 on 20 December at the Aurora Centre. Bollywood entertain-ment and performances.

Aotearoa Hispanic Association will host three summer Latino events at various venues from 14 Dec. For further info, visit http://www.migranthub.org.nz/noticeboard/navidad-latina

Community Notices/Events

8th Lincoln Multicultural Festival

The Migrant Centre’s newsletter provides you

with updates. Please let us know at

kevin@cmctrust.org.nz if you have an item

that you would like in the newsletter, or if you

were missed out in our email list. We distrib-

ute the newsletter to ethnic community

groups and social agencies online and print the

limited numbers of hard copies.

Opinions expressed in articles in this newslet-

ter are those of the writer and are not neces-

sarily those of the Christchurch Migrants Cen-

tre Trust.

The Christchurch Migrants Centre Trust

—Te Whare Ta Wahi is funded by:

The Office of Ethnic Affairs

The Christchurch City Council

NZ Lotteries Commission

The Canterbury Community Trust

The Tindall Foundation

The TODD Foundation

COGS

NZ Red Cross

Health Promotion Agency

ACE Funding

and private donations.

All migrants appreciate their support.