Stories

It's an unusually sunny and warm day in Invercargill when the bus pulls up. Mauricio Calero and Flor Ciro and their sons, Brandon Pation (18) and Dilan Calero (4), disembark looking at the group of people waiting for them with a mixture of excitement, apprehension, confusion, and exhaustion.

Laughter rings through the bare room as Pa Uk and Liban Nur work. Today they are preparing a home to be re-floored, which means ripping up carpet and pulling nails. Pa and Liban are infectiously cheerful despite the physical work, chatting away and offering useful advice to each other.

Niborom was on a student exchange to New Zealand when her life changed forever. She was unable to go home and would never see her family again.

19 May 2018 was a day Jose, Maria and their daughter Nidia will never forget. They had finally arrived in New Zealand - a country totally unknown to them - leaving behind three long and difficult years in Ecuador and, before that, their lives in Colombia.

Having never set foot in her own country, Radiya Ali is making sure she's an agent of change for Kiwi kids.

Mitchell was only 12 when he fled his home in Vietnam. He was accepted for resettlement to New Zealand where he became an internationally recognised businessman.

.It's November 1988 and competitors in the Vuelta Ciclista de Chile (Chilean cycling race) are jostling for a position as they approach finish line for the 11th stage which ended up in the city of Concepción. This is a huge event for the region and massive crowds are waiting for them, along with journalists from all over the globe.

I want to write about a beautiful, kind and merciful woman, my mum. I know everyone thinks their mother is the best in the world but my mum is very brave.

Rukia Darweshi was just a small child when her life changed forever. She was living in Afghanistan with her family when she lost her arm in a rocket blast. Soon after this her brother was also injured due to the fighting and the family fled to neighbouring Pakistan.

Life didn't get any easier. The family had few rights and Rukia’s mother died of kidney failure during the 18 years they lived there.

Landing a job as a florist has been a dream come true for one former refugee from Afghanistan.

"I don't want people to say I can't do anything. I can do anything."