Mt Roskill school Wesley Primary lays the foundations for healthier kids as they kick off their Garden to Table programme. Wesley teacher Ana Tonga and principal Brenda Martin share the vision of what this will mean for their school.
From the mean streets up north to a tightrope of homelessness, mental health and substance abuse issues, Tim bravely shares his journey with DCM Wellington back into housing and health.
Peter Burke breaks the chains of addiction and homelessness to live a life helping others.
You’d be forgiven for thinking that Lani Evans was New Zealand’s own Superwoman. She heads the Vodafone New Zealand Foundation, co-chairs Thankyou Charitable Trust, chairs Thankyou Payroll and is on the committee for the JR McKenzie Trust’s Peter McKenzie Project. Not to mention being involved in the first all-female traverse of the South Island, proposing to her partner at the end of the 100km Oxfam Trailwalker and fighting the crime of wastefulness through dumpster diving – plus being an amazing 1% donor and Future 50 member. Phew!
Inspired by the possibility of making someone’s life better gets Motif’s Director and One Percent’s Chair, James Bushell, out of bed each day.
A fan of millenials and their conscientious decision-making (go millenials!) and a member of the crew that sailed a vaka unassisted to Bougainville and back searching for sustainable cocoa beans for Wellington Chocolate Factory, James is pretty proud he hasn’t scared his family and friends away, yet.
Julian Moller is a self-proclaimed nerd and known here at One Percent as ‘The Wizard’. From Opoho, Dunedin, Julian grew up exploring the ’burbs with his brothers, building huts in the bush and playing touch down at the local park. Nowadays, he works his magic as a programmer and developer at 1000minds, dabbles in a bit of craft beer brewing with his mates (they’ve called themselves 1000Brews – shout out to the Occasional Brewer) and is our much-valued volunteer tech support wiz.
To be human is to be on a journey – in Samoan, faigamalaga. A journey to discover your own kaupapa, and to find ways to live it out. At DCM, we talk about picking up the paddle – ki te hoe. For me, that’s a journey to becoming and to being my best self. We call the people we work with taumai, meaning ‘to settle’. You could say that to be human is to be on a journey to a place where you are settled, where your wairua (in Samoan, agaga) is settled.
What is happiness? A perfect sunset? A mansion on the hill? A dog walking on its hind legs? It’s the question that lingers in our minds when we consider which job to take, what to have for lunch and the sort of person we should spend the rest of our lives with. But do any of us have the answer? Sigmund Freud was not convinced and insisted that ‘the pursuit of happiness is a doomed quest.’ Fortunately, it seems that few of us agree.
Joe Bloggs may be a tidy Kiwi, but ‘tidy’ is not the kind of Kiwi that New Zealand needs right now. It’s fine to keep rubbish off the streets, but the real problem is the amount of plastic being used and thrown away on a daily basis. Let’s have a look then, at some of the very real facts about single use plastics (or SUPs). Joe would be horrified to learn, for example, that of the 322 metric tonnes of plastic produced each year worldwide, only 14 percent are recycled. Or that every year, New Zealanders go through enough plastic bottles to fill 700 jumbo jets.
Have you ever wondered just how easy it really is to give 1%? Well we pitched a video brief to global boutique production company Sweetshop, they sent it out to their directors and the incredible Louis Sutherland came back with this gem of a script called ‘Mike & Mandy’. This pro-bono video campaign blew our minds! Here’s a wee sneaky look behind-the-scenes with director and fellow Wellingtonian, Louis Sutherland.
In true Kiwi fashion, over a hot cup of tea, we sat down with two of New Zealand’s most fascinating people to discuss the state of the world around us, what the future looks like and what matters most. Melissa Clark-Reynolds (ONZM) is a digital strategist, technological entrepreneur and Future 50 donor of ours. Sarah Longbottom (MNZM) is the founder and former executive director of Ngā Rangatahi Toa. Smart, successful and more than a little bit rock ‘n’ roll, Melissa and Sarah share with us four key areas to help unf*ck the world.
You’ll often find Cracked Ink halfway up a wall buzzing up and down in a cherry picker, doing what he loves, painting walls with his infectious style. We were lucky enough to pin him down for a day in his Whanganui studio, so he could capture the crazy collective world of his amazing B&W ink style characters.
Pregnancy isn’t always a walk in the park; in fact, it can feel more like a slog through a warm jungle. We chatted to Kimberly about the challenges she faced during the nine months before her daughter arrived and how Bellyful helped take some weight when she and her partner needed it the most.
The most dangerous thing in the Solomon Islands these days isn’t a rebel alliance; it’s a sugar-heavy diet. We talk to Janette Searle about the very real dangers of the Solomon’s diabetes epidemic and how our partner charity Take My Hands are fighting hard to keep patients well cared for.
“My life’s work is young people,” says Huia O’Sullivan. “They are what blow my hair back.” After two years at Ngā Rangatahi Toa, Huia has stepped into the role of Executive Director. We chatted to Huia about her new role, her lifelong commitment to youth development and the importance of having a kick-ass team behind you.
We had a Wellington-to-the-Burmese-jungle Messenger conversation with 28-year-old Kunu, to learn how our 1% donations to SpinningTop help bring education and opportunities to the children in her village. In a country with minimal government support, Kunu can make a little go a very long way.
Te Hāpai is just one part of the incredible work DCM gets up to in central Wellington. For those who have been sleeping rough on these cold winter's nights, it's an essential part of their morning routine. Here's an insight into what life at Te Hāpai looks like.
When UpsideDowns told us that your 1% donations have helped introduce a new 100% subsidy option for families in need, we had to learn more. Here's the exciting update!
