Sarah plans to take on even bigger and more creative projects in 2022. In the first five years of operating, there have been more than 7,000 meals made, 42,400 people fed by the community for their families, and 5,700 items of kitchen equipment given out. Agnes Loheni and her three sisters have managed and grown their family business into the successful Pacific fashion label MENA. Now in its 20th year of operation, Agnes’ focus on strategies to increase international sales has helped to buffer the effects of COVID-19 lockdowns. adult toys make up almost 40% of the business’s revenue.
Nowadays most play therapy researchers and practitioners have an open attitude towards the intentional inclusion of toy guns as a vehicle for children’s aggressive feelings (Ryan, Lane & Powers, 2017). Logue and Detour (2011) recognised in the recording of children’s play and educators’ field notes that both children and educators were able to distinguish pretending from real aggression if attentive verbal and physical interactions were present. Their study also indicated that when teachers respond to children’s play intentions, the aggressively themed play tends to develop into intellectually constructive experiences. By contrast, Delaney (2017) reported in a case study that when pretend violence was forbidden by negative instructions, real aggression could happen in the classroom even more harshly.
The relaxed nature of the passive style helps to put others at ease and enable them to talk, from which the passive person gains vital information. The focused and driven nature of the assertive person ensures that vital information is communicated effectively when necessary, in a rational and sensible way without becoming overpowering. If you’re wanting to bring it up for the first time with a partner and are not sure how they will feel, you could try something like “I’m feeling super turned on tonight would love to connect sexually with you. I’m on my period and I know that’s not something we’ve done before. It’s also okay to start slow – perhaps using a toy or keeping to only external play – and in time you both might feel differently. It has been proven time and again that sex and plessure are beneficial to both our physical and our mental health.
In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, frontline workers were in a critical position, grappling with low PPE and other resources. Anna Mowbray used her influence and contacts in China to tackle the issue. She formed and led a body of New Zealand business leaders, lobbied the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, sourced supplies and single-handedly coordinated 98 million pieces of PPE, including seven full flights from Shanghai to New Zealand. This provided health care workers with the significant boost they needed to support New Zealand through COVID-19. When Ana returned home to New Zealand because of COVID-19, she immediately got to work on making the New Zealand Holi Boli business operational to keep the women in the villages paid. She has grown the business to 23 staff, based in New Zealand and working with similar enterprises in two other Indian states and in Cambodia.
She embodies the meaning of ‘ākina’ – to challenge – both in her role as CEO and as a well-known advocate for economic change that improves lives and the environment. Now Chief Executive at ACC, Megan leads a team of 4,000 people committed to ACC’s purpose of improving New Zealanders’ lives every day through injury prevention, support and rehabilitation. She called every single employer, collecting the information she needed to support workers to come across the border. When MIQ spaces fell through, she negotiated work-arounds that required cross-employer support, with workers sharing rooms.
Lesley promotes the power of photography to focus on positive life experiences, nurture support networks, reduce stress and enhance self-worth. In 2021, WiP launched an annual Photography & Mindset Retreat, with the aim of providing a mental health getaway. It also offers teenage girls a six-week mentoring programme, culminating in a four-week photography exhibition.