Pupil to join Pacific project

Year 13 Tokomairiro High School pupil Rowan Blackbourn (17), of Milton, will spend his school...
Year 13 Tokomairiro High School pupil Rowan Blackbourn (17), of Milton, will spend his school holidays in Hobart and Vanuatu as part of the UN Youth New Zealand Pacific Project. Photo by Hamish MacLean.

''Poverty and hunger'' in the world is an issue year 13 Tokomairiro High School pupil Rowan Blackbourn cares about - and now has a chance to learn about.

The Milton teenager will leave for Auckland on July 2 to take part in the UN Youth New Zealand Pacific Project from July 3 to July 21 in Australia and Vanuatu.

He was one of 10 New Zealand secondary pupils chosen to take part in the annual trip over the school holidays.

The trip begins with the New Zealand youth delegation joining 100 participants from around Australia and the Asia-Pacific at model UN debates and workshops in Hobart and concludes with locally driven volunteer projects in Vanuatu, where the delegates learn about New Zealand's role in Pacific development.

Rowan has been overseas once before.

A couple of years ago he travelled to Australia with the school's rugby team, but this trip would offer him a different opportunity.

''To unlock myself; something like that. It's kind of hard to explain,'' he said.

He said he wanted ''to see how other countries around the world see the world around them - different perspectives to New Zealand's.''

And in Vanuatu he would be exposed to a different standard of life, where poverty and hunger were far removed from anything he had been exposed to in his provincial New Zealand upbringing.

He said he had never seen poverty and hunger.

''Not in a small town like this, or even Dunedin. I haven't seen anything.''

Rowan was the only pupil to apply for the trip last year when Tokomairiro High School senior dean Gill Ferguson asked for expressions of interest in the project.

This year she tapped him on the shoulder.

''I think he has great leadership skills,'' Ms Ferguson said.

He is part of a group of senior students at the school who act as mediators for younger pupils.

He is on the school's peer support team, where he serves as a role model for younger pupils.

He is a leader in sports and ''works jolly hard'' in his studies as well.

''And I think he's got a lot of empathy - he sees the ones who are down. He's a really nice person.''

Rowan needed to raise $5000 for the trip.

It was money he did not have ''lying around'', so he reached out to the community and achieved his goal on Sunday.

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