She is the Liaison Manager for Filipino worker's Social Integration Programme at Canterbury Migrants Centre, and also the founder and President of the community organisation Philippine Culture and Sports (PCS).
All in Ethnic communities
Police recruitment seminar in Christchurch - a huge success!
Over 400 Canterburians, many of them migrants, responded to NZ Police's call for a more diverse force on July 16 in Christchurch
Multilingualism: Call for a Canterbury Languages Policy
In what can be termed as a first in the region, Anna Filippochkina of CLANZ (Community Languages Association of New Zealand) and Angela Bland of CANTESOL and TESOLNZ (Teachers of Speakers of Other Languages), organised a workshop for pro-fessional development of community language teachers on July 21.
Children: Shirley International Playgroup for migrants
The playgroup wants to focus on mothers and children who come from refugee and migrant backgrounds. In a safe, fun, and learning environment for both mothers and children, it wants to foster cross-cultural exchange, friendship and understanding. That's why the playgroup welcomes native as well as non-native English speaking mothers and their children.
Multiculturalism: A's International Club Christchurch
Created by Audrey Davies in 2011, the Club has over 360 members representing around 38 countries from around the world
Bastille Day: The French unite
On July 14, 1789, the Parisian crowd seized the Bastille prison, a symbol of royal tyranny. Over all, the French Revolution was a movement that shook France between 1787 and 1799, and was against the feudal regime that had plagued the country for centuries before that.
Timaru: Japanese pottery exhibition
The Aigantighe Art Gallery in Timaru is currently hosting an international touring exhibition of contemporary Japanese ceramics, along with Auckland and Wellington, as one of three New Zealand venues. The exhibition opened on July 1, and will close August 7.
Eid Mubarak Canterbury!
The Canterbury Muslim Community Trust, which represents over 3,250 Muslims from 40 different nationalities, who have made Christchurch their new home, organised Eid celebrations in the North New Brighton Community Centre on July 10, 2016. Rob Dewhirst, chairman of the Trust informed, "With celebrations like these, our aim is to build bridges between members of the Muslim community in Canterbury and build bridges between Muslims and non-Muslims."
4th of July: The gun culture
The newly-elected President of the American Club of Christchurch shares her memories of celebrating 4th of July, the American Independence Day, and expresses concerns on the prevalent gun culture back home
Rotorua: A walk of hope
Rotorua woman Faustinah Ndlovu on Saturday, July 9, 2016, walked 21 km balancing a 20 litre bucket of water on her head. It took her a total of 3 hours 33 minutes and the walk raised $1100 in total. This was for her Zimbabwe project Tariro (hope), under which she is working with villagers from her home town in Zimbabwe to build a community early childhood development learning centre in the Mawandu village. She had earlier created a four-metre tall knitted doll that weighed over 90 kg to raise money for the same cause.
More 24-month-visas being issued now: Angus McKay, Mayor, Ashburton
In an exclusive chat with this newspaper, Angus McKay, Mayor of Ashburton District Council, says he was told by the Philippines Ambassador recently that New Zealand authorities are issuing more and more two-year work-visas these days, so that migrant workers can benefit from access to subsidised healthcare. This has been one of the major demands of the Canterbury Mayoral Forum, in which McKay looks after the migrant affairs.
Photo essay: Enchanting Vietnam
In this photo-essay, we go to Vietnam, Lan Le-Ngoc's country till he left it in 1978. He graciously shared his life story with us for The Long Read [pg 12 & 13] for this issue.
Exploitation: Access to justice is important for migrants
The Immigration Advisers Complaints and Disciplinary Tribunal in a recent judgement had found that Lindsay Charles Sparks, an immigration adviser with Business Immigration Limited (BIL), had engaged in "dishonest and misleading behaviour" in dealing with Edwin Balatbat, a Filipino migrant worker. While the case is “no hold” till the appeal process is completed, The Migrant Times caught up with Ruth Burgess, Solicitor at Lexington Legal – the law firm fighting Edwin's case pro-bono – for her views on why access to justice is important for migrants well-being, as well as for the international reputation of New Zealand.
Taxi: New legislation will deal with concerns - Nicky Wagner
The minister was speaking at a protest organised and attended by around 150 taxi drivers in the City against the company, Uber
Lyttelton Harbour Festival of Lights Concludes
The ten-day-long Lyttelton Harbour Festival of Lights, which started on June 18, concluded this past Monday, with highlight being the Street Party on June 24.
Photo essay: Yogyakarta - The city of graffiti
Yogyakarta is the hub of Javanese culture in Indonesia, which has seamlessly integrated cultural traits of Hinduism and Buddhism, with Islam. Even though, the people of Java are mainly Muslims, they are very proud of their links with other cultures and religions. On top of it, the most striking feature of the city is the omnipresence of graffiti on almost every wall around the city, presenting a very liberal face of Indonesia. To quote the Lonely Planet, "Yogyakarta is where the Javanese language is at its purest, arts at their brightest and its traditions at their most visible."
Environment: #SaveOurKauri has a precedent in India
The Bishnois - India's 'original conservationist's – would be so proud of Michael Tavares spending four-days on a 500-year-old Kauri tree in Titirangi, West Auckland.
Work Talk
Immigration New Zealand in collaboration with the Language in the Workplace Team, School of Linguistics & Applied Language Studies, Victoria University of Wellington, has developed a web tool to help workplace communication challenges and improve communication between NZ employers, managers and their new migrant employees from other cultures.
Community Database: Celebrating Canterbury's diversity
Canterbury is getting diverse. A testimony to this is the growing number of community organisations finding their space here. We present an indicative list below. For a more exhaustive list, please visit:
How NZ can Benefit from Increasing Diversity
Capturing the Diversity Dividend of Aotearoa/New Zealand (CaDDANZ, pronounced 'cadence') is a research programme led by teams from the University of Waikato and Massey University. The team also includes staff from Motu Economic and Public Policy Research in Wellington. It is funded by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.