Leah was raised by a solo mother in an environment surrounded by drugs, alcohol, gangs and abuse. She dropped out of school at 14 and when she was 15 her mother died. She hit rock bottom. She was, she said, “in the wrong crowds, doing the wrong stuff, and making the wrong decisions.”

Then she was referred to an employment skills course, loved it and got her first job. She married at 18 and by the time she was 20 she had two children and was “reliving the exact life I had been brought up in.” So she went to see the social workers at the Porirua Whānau Centre and was referred to the Parenting Course and the HIPPY programme: “I learnt how to manage my life, organise myself and how to react calmly to stressful situations. It gave me a boost of confidence and turned that light back on for me.”

The family then returned to Murupara “to get an understanding of who I was, and where I came from and I wanted to teach my kids our reo.” Back in Porirua two years later things began to fall part again and both she and her husband joined the Parenting Programme. “It’s made us better people, better parents and a stronger unit. I am more involved in the community and feel more confident in myself. We now have a plan, a goal, and a vision for our whānau.”

Leah is now a HIPPY tutor, her children are thriving, and she is motivated. “I think,” she told the audience in the Grand Hall at Parliament, “that knowledge is power.”