WEAPRI Associate Awarded For Peace-Building

18/02/10

WEAPRI Associate and founding member Sam Haami Chapman has been presented with New Zealand’s top  award for community achievement.

The  Local Hero Award for the inaugural New Zealander of the Year presentation, was awarded to Sam for his work with New Zealand’s Maori gangs of which Sam has tirelessly sought to achieve community reconciliation and commitment to renounce violence.

Sam and his wife Thelma, also a founding WEAPRI member, live in South Auckland and are co-founders of Hou Hongo Rongo a community group working with disadvantaged families and pursuing reconciliation and community development. The vision is a solid biblical response to poverty, alienation and violence with a special emphasis on Maori and Pacific Island peoples and families.

In a recent article Sam defined his transformational strategy in simple terms: “It is about giving someone a hongi ( Maori embrace of which noses touch ) and saying ‘Let’s walk together.’”

You can read more about Sam’s work by going to http://www.rethinking.org.nz/images/PDF/2006%20Conference/20%20Sam%20Chapman.pdf. You can also hear Sam in his own words in a remarkable and inspiring Radio interview. http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/sat/sat-20100206-1010-Sam_Chapman_local_hero.ogg