SOLD: Beautiful Happyzine

By Lani Evans

We’re just about to finish an incredible week in the Manawatu-Whanganui region, feasting our eyes on the scenery and filling our bellies with feijoa. What a delicious
way to start the tour of the North Island!

Our first stop was Te Aroha Noa, an innovative, holistic community centre in Palmerston North. They run a plethora of programmes – an early education centre,
counseling services, men’s groups, adult education and a range of services that promote health and wellbeing for whanau. Te Aroha Noa has more than 20 years
of experience, 60 staff and 150 volunteers (mostly parents), which is incredible, but what blew me away were the levels of engagement and ownership from the
parents.

We had the pleasure of a morning tea with some of the parent-educators at the centre and hearing their stories was amazing. Te Aroha Noa gives parents the skills
and confidence to really engage with their role as teachers. It was a real privilege being able to share highlights from their children’s lives through photos and stories
and to see how the centre works to create community.

We spent four days in Palmerston North before heading through to Whanganui, where most of the crew headed to Whanganui High School to hang out with 90 of their senior student leaders. While we were at the school, jamming on communication, leadership and global poverty, Tim went back to Palmerston North to see internationally acclaimed climate scientist James Hansen talk about the moral, political and legal issues of climate change.

To round off our first week, a special treat… a jetboat ride, a canoe trip and a wee tramp up the Whanganui River, in the pouring rain, with stunning waterfalls and
steep-sided gorges dripping with Punga and Nikau… ahhhh. It was incredible, but the real gold for me this week was a conversation with Bruce Maden at Te Aroha
Noa about dreams. What are your biggest dreams for the future?

www.regeneration.org.nz

Tags: regeneration