STUDENT ON A MISSION
Prestigious award will help student give a voice to the plight of vulnerable women.
Congratulations to Year 13 student Olivia Luxon who recently won the 2019 Zonta International Young Women in Public Affairs (YWPA) Award. The Zonta Programme encourages young women to pursue leadership roles in society that will make a difference in the lives of women worldwide. The YWPA Award recognises young women aged 16-19 who demonstrate leadership skills and commitment to public service and civic causes. Olivia was selected first from Auckland applicants, then from the New Zealand winners before being chosen from a group of 32 ‘District’ winners from around the world. Olivia is certainly well-deserving of the award, namely for her role as a Tearfund
Youth Ambassador where she has committed in many ways to helping vulnerable women and speaking out on their behalf. Most recently, she visited Cambodia through Tearfund, and says the trip opened her eyes to life “beyond our everyday bubble”. The trip gave her insight into the deep societal and personal issues that come from intergenerational trauma, in Cambodia’s case the devastation and genocide of the Khmer Rouge under Cambodian politician Pol Pot. She met people who were children under his regime, and who are still affected by the experience, even today. Olivia says seeing the impact of organisations such as Hagar, which
works with trauma victims in Cambodia, gave her hope. Her Tearfund involvement was sparked by a 2015 trip to Manila in the Philippines where she spent time working in the slums. During the trip she visited a home for children rescued from sex trafficking and wrote a slam poem based on her experience, which was then picked up by Tearfund. Last year she travelled to Nepal and Thailand on a Tearfund trip called ‘Journey to Freedom’, to learn more about sex trafficking in those countries. As well as seeing Tearfund’s rescue and prosecution work in action in Bangkok, Olivia also visited remote villages in Nepal to meet women’s action groups – girls aged between seven and 25 years – who gather together to educate their communities about the wiles of the human traffickers. She says it was truly inspiring to meet these women and children and see up close the difference their empowerment could make. “Meeting these girls face to face and hearing their stories was incredibly moving and motivating for me,” Olivia says. “I knew then that I wanted to bring change for these girls and thousands like them not yet saved. I wanted to seize this opportunity to do something about this issue and get to work alongside such an incredible organisation.” Olivia has spoken for Tearfund at numerous events including high-level dinners and the Justice Conference, addressing large and small audiences, and has been interviewed on TVNZ’s morning show The Café. She’s also jumped on a bike to represent Dio in Tearfund’s Poverty Cycle, encouraging
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