On October 10th, commemorating the UN’s World Mental Health Day, the New Zealand branches of Heavenly Culture, World
Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL) and International Peace Youth Group (IPYG) held a combined webinar titled ‘Building
Resilience in Aotearoa’. Through the seminar, they aimed to tackle and raise awareness of issues in mental health that
youth are experiencing in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The current global pandemic has brought a new dimension to New Zealand’s Mental health issues. For youth particularly,
added stress has come from disruptions to education at the crucial secondary and tertiary levels, and disorientation
leading into exam season. Those in low income families, as well have had to make painful decisions, as a result of
COVID’s economic fallout.
One of the panellists from the education sector, who wished to remain nameless said, “While there is currently no
statistics to show this, teachers who work with students day by day are noticing this to be a real issue, as the
students are having to choose between staying in school or leaving and supporting their families.”
The webinar event consisted of two sessions. The first was a panel discussion where representatives and leaders from
different sectors of society presented on the current state of mental health in our youth today. In the second session,
attendees split into virtual breakout rooms. In these, youth collaborated with each representative to suggest practical
solutions for supporting the mental wellbeing of themselves and their peers.
One of the phrases that stood out in the panel discussion was "Our young people have to deal with an ever-changing
environment. Resilience is built into our young people.” This was one of the key takeaways from the first part of the
event, recognising the growing challenges that youth today are adapting to.
Murry Stentiford, former president of the Auckland Theosophical society, another of the panellists, offered that young
people of today are beginning to be aware of it [bigger world view] and ask the serious questions: what about a world
view that’s much bigger than the one we observe in the newspapers and the Facebook groups? This idea of a bigger world
view he suggested was from a holistic viewpoint to cover the mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual.
HWPL is an international peace organisation founded for global peace and cessation of war. “Heavenly culture” signifies
a culture of realising the common values across humanity – peace, reconciliation, coexistence, and prosperity – by
transcending national borders, race, religion, and gender. HWPL, along with their affiliate organisation, IPYG, are
carrying out their peace movement around the globe in over 170 countries, including Aotearoa.
IPYG New Zealand is holding youth empowerment workshops, cultural events, campaigns in local communities and organising
peace walks to spread positive change in these areas.