Inaugural Humanitarian Event at Macleans College
Posted on September 23, 2016
This event was run by the organisation LEAD (Liberate, Educate and Empower Adolescent Development) in collaboration with Macleans College.
The organisation was founded by Macleans College student, Sara Khatau (Hillary House) at the beginning of the year. The goal of the organisation is to help provide leadership opportunities for students whilst combating social prejudice.
The purpose of the event run on Thursday 15 September was to foster inclusiveness and demonstrate that Macleans College is a leader against combating hates of all kinds. The event was held at the school library and had a large turnout of approximately 100 plus students who attended.
The structure of the event consisted of a speakers’ panel of mayoral candidate Phil Goff, Amnesty International representative Francesco Carruthers and Pastor from All Saints Anglican Church Andrew Coyles. The intent of creating this speakers’ panel was to generate discussion between groups which are generally deemed to have contrasting views agreeing on the importance of fostering inclusiveness.
The Hon Phil Goff communicated that New Zealand should be a safe place for all and discussed how we all can play a role in achieving this. "Inclusiveness should be the cornerstone of our society. Every race, religion and creed has something positive to offer and in order to succeed it is vital we recognise that".
Amnesty International representative, Francesco Carruthers spoke about the importance of different groups working together in unity and Amnesty International’s work in safeguarding the rights of others. The school has a large Amnesty International group of 60 members so the speaker's messages were well received.
Andrew Coyles from All Saints Anglican Church spoke of the relationship between religion and human rights and the importance that these two don’t clash. Andrew’s primary message to the students was that religion must not be used as a tool to undermine anyone or to encourage violence or hatred of any kind.
Overall, the event was extremely successful thanks to the effort of Year 12 student Sara Khatau, the teachers who supported her idea and provided advice, Mr Davidson of Mansfield House who agreed to MC the event and students who helped run and attend the event on the day.
