Christmas can be a tough time for many Kiwi families, so Pera Barrett set out to make the festive season more joyful for children in need. He started Shoebox Christmas Aotearoa, working with volunteers to deliver Christmas gifts for 80 tamariki in Cannons Creek. Since then he’s built the initiative into a national initiative, delivering over 74,000 Christmas gifts so far.

He’s created a leadership development programme for rangatahi, coaching them to lead their own projects for and from their communities. Alongside those rāngatahi leaders, he’s now developing this into a programme to be delivered in schools across Aotearoa, developing more values-based leaders with the skills to make the kind of impact our country needs, through Shoebox Christmas and other community-based projects.