Former Refugee

Playgroups empowering children through Engage

Playgroups empowering children through Engage

The ability for children to self-regulate their emotions is a a huge indicator for success later in life. Safari Multicultural Playgroups now have an adapted version for our communities, of the Engage programme: a nationwide programme to help children cultivate their emotional, cognitive and behavioural skills through game playing. It was developed by Associate Professor Dione Healey of Otago University, and is based on research findings from the Dunedin longitudinal study.

Episode 3 #PassTheMic: African representation, poetry and hot takes

Episode 3 #PassTheMic: African representation, poetry and hot takes

Vira Paky is a young Congolese-Kiwi-South African woman. She is a Chairperson of the New Zealand National Refugee Youth Council, which advocates for, engages & supports refugee background youth around Aotearoa New Zealand. Vira is an outstanding poet who writes about intersections of feminism, race, African identity and many other poignant topics. In this episode we talk about Vira’s poetry, being true to her voice, black-kiwi representation in New Zealand, what it means to be an advocate in this day and age plus Vira's “hot take” about young people and the future.

Episode 4 #PassTheMic: Mental gymnastics of being a woman of colour

Episode 4 #PassTheMic: Mental gymnastics of being a woman of colour

This conversation is with Maria Khaydar. She is a self-described “capitalist girl-boss by day and anarchist by night”. Maria currently works in the tech industry and is actively involved in amplifying ethnic voices and advocating for refugee and asylum seeker rights. We talk about her Syrian-Azeri-Russian identity and expectations that come with that mix. We discuss the way we police ourselves as women of colour and reject the notion of being a trail-blazer.