IHC a keen supporter of Youth Week

Media release from IHC New Zealand Inc
22 May 2010
Youth Week
22 – 30 May 2010

Theme: Connecting young people and their whānau/families

IHC a keen supporter of Youth Week

Young people with intellectual disability have the same issues as any other young person, and that’s why IHC is a keen supporter of Youth Week.

“Having a meaningful place in society and being connected with your family creates a sense of wellbeing,” says Caroline Barnes, National Manager Volunteering.

“Young people share the same issues regardless of who they are – inclusion, a meaningful place and a sense of wellbeing are vital to all young people.”

Like Waata Houia, a young man with an intellectual disability, who wants things to be better for people with intellectual disabilities at school than they were for him.

Waata loves the silence of the countryside, but these days he chooses to spend more time in the city – despite having to sleep with the sounds of people and traffic.

A member of IHC’s Self Advocacy Committee, Waata’s work these days representing IHC takes him beyond the farm gate – around New Zealand and overseas.

At 16, Waata was the first person with an intellectual disability to complete a rural skills programme through Agriculture New Zealand. Now 25, he still lives on a dairy farm – in Morrinsville with his mum Pamela and step-dad Barry McGreevy ¬– and helps bring the cows into the 70-bay rotary shed and look after the calves.

But his goal now is to work on behalf of people with intellectual disabilities and make sure their point of view is heard when decisions are made about their lives.

When Waata talks about the farm, though, it is clear the confidence that allows him to stand up and speak on behalf of people with disabilities comes in part from working alongside his farming mates. “Being with the bosses they don’t think I have got a disability; they don’t go easy on me.”

Connecting with his Maori roots has been another watershed in Waata’s life. His tribe is Ngatai and his waka is Tainui. Recently, with the encouragement of Peter White – cultural liaison or kaitakawaenga for IDEA Services in Rotorua – Waata has been learning Te Reo. And earlier this year, Waata started his address to delegates at a Geelong conference, in Australia, with his mihi, a formal speech in Maori, before going on to outline the role of self advocacy within IHC.

“I can talk to anyone on the street and in the aeroplane,” Waata says. He proved that – in October 2008 during the election campaign when he spotted future Prime Minister John Key at Wellington airport.

“I was nearly going to my plane and someone said, ‘John Key, John Key’, and I bolted across the airport.

“He was talking on the phone, and I waited for him to finish. I said to John Key, here are some issues that are important to people with intellectual disabilities, and I said can you read this book on the plane. And he said yes.”

What Waata had given him was a copy of IHC’s Call to Action document that was circulated before the last election. It set out the major social and economic issues facing people with intellectual disabilities and called on politicians to take action. Waata saw nine members of Parliament in total during the campaign and gave them all copies.

“When I was young, I got teased a lot at school and all that. For the young ones, I want their lives to be better.”

Ends