Teens ready for life-changing Kenya trip

A group of teenagers are preparing for a trip that will change their lives forever thanks to a local travel trust.

The Celestielle Charitable Trust (CCT) have previously taken applications from Nelson colleges to send 12 students on an all-expenses-paid overseas trip, with the next 12 due to head to South-East Asia in September.

However, this year, founders of the trust Doug Easton and John Ziegler were introduced to Victory Boxing’s Paul Hampton, sparking a partnership that will change the lives of four local teenagers.

Macca Miles-Wearing, Magnus Fraser, Sophie O’Neill and Summer Curtis along with Paul, will head to Kenya in April for an all-expenses trip paid for by CCT.

The trip includes visits to local schools, an orphanage, a boxing gym, an elephant orphanage and safaris. Along the way, the young people will give back to the local communities by volunteering.

A chunk of the time will be spent staying in luxury safari lodges that can cost up to $5000NZD per person, per night.

Despite the luxury digs, the young people all say it’s experiencing the different culture that they are most looking forward to.

John says the change in direction from partnering directly with Nelson high schools aims to open the experience to those who may not be enrolled in main-stream education.

“We want the community of Nelson to feel that this programme is as inclusive as possible.”

He says the aim of the trust is to reach kids who may otherwise not get the chance to travel.

“Taking kids at an age where they can appreciate something and their minds are expanded by something they’ve seen, you don’t know how that will change their lives,” he says.

“Maybe they get interested in conservation or animal husbandry or a million other things.”

Paul says, although it was a tough choice, Macca, Magnus, Sophie and Summer were chosen for their positive attributes and willingness to help others.

“These young people were chosen because they’ve got some amazing attributes that when they come back, they’re going to share that, and grow from it,” Paul says.

“You don’t have to go through schools to find kids who are intelligent, curious and who would make the most of the opportunity,” John says.

“You want the recipients to be able to extract every last bit of benefit from this.”

He says both he and Doug were immediately impressed with Paul after being introduced by two of the trustees - Alexandra Isherwood and Paul Le Gros.

“Here’s a guy who kind of has the same progressive approach to life. I’m sure he could make a lot more money doing what he does elsewhere, but why does he do so much? Because he cares. He cares about the community and the kids of Nelson.”

Paul echoes the sentiment back to John and Doug.

“They really understand young people who may not get the opportunity to travel,” Paul says. “The value of travel and how it can really broaden your horizons - I think it’s going to be a real life-changing moment for these guys. That’s just a special thing to be a part of and we are incredibly grateful.”

John says the trip wouldn’t be possible without the amazing network of partners around the world.

Episode 11 - living locally and working globally — The Nelson Pod

“With these Africa trips we approached Great Plains Conservation. Beverly and Dereck Joubert are some of Africa’s leading conservationists. They run luxury safari camps as a non-profit, with all the money going back into the animals and the land,” John says.

“When they found out we were interested in sending kids on safari from New Zealand and from Victory Boxing they readily offered their camps in Kenya for this trip at a substantially discounted rate.”

John says Great Plains have planned almost all of the groups movements.

“A big part of our groups is the give back part. The kids that are going will be shown that when somebody gives you something, you give back to others as you can.”

John says being able to give kids the opportunity to go overseas, many for the first time, has been a highlight of his life.

“Helping to expand Kiwi minds - you never know how it will come to benefit New Zealand in the long run,” he says.

Anybody who has ever travelled overseas knows that travel changes your life. It’s pretty difficult to not be changed in a positive way.”

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