OTHC’s Pink Shirt Week gave us the opportunity to focus on something extremely important for New Zealand - mental health with special focus on anti-bullying. Pink Shirt Day began way back in 2007 in Canada and then spread worldwide to many other countries, including New Zealand, in 2009. Since 2019, we at OTHC have been working very hard as a school on pink shirt weeks, and each year since then, we have planned many activities and events throughout the week for us students to learn about the effects of bullying on someone.

One such activity was a photo booth (which was a way for us to show we are up-standers) as well as a pink shirt day. We also had a guest speaker Jazz Thornton (one of the people behind Voices of Hope), who came into our school and told us about how pink shirt week began, mental health issues, and how asking for help doesn’t make us weak but rather wise. We had students from other schools come in and watch and learn from Jazz and her inspiring words. This year we worked with other schools including Sylvia Park, Bailey Road, Ellerslie, Stanhope Road and Panmure District, to raise money for the Voices of Hope Charity.

Voices of Hope is run by two New Zealand strong female leaders, Genevieve Mora and Jazz Thornton. The aim of the charity is to relate many wonderful stories about people’s journey and their successes in overcoming mental health issues and struggles. The schools got together to discuss the impact of bullying and other mental health issues and successfully fundraise $2,150 for this most worthwhile charity.

DIYA NEGI, RACHEL DAUNOCO & SALWA KAMBL - NEWS MEDIA TEAM