Earlier this year, St Andrews, where I am minister, was involved in hosting Turkish refugee families in our town. That event which took place over several days was dubbed The Welcome Mat. It was the first of its kind in Aotearoa NZ. It is now being considered at the UN for an award - we never imagined this!

Our small but strong team from New Zealand will be attending the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) 78th Session on the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 next week.

As well as one of New Zealand's distinguished award winning journalist speaking at a panel during the conference, we have also been nominated for our work on, 'The Welcome Mat' project. This is where we need you. We are asking all our partners and friends to vote for us for the SDG People's Choice Award that has been introduced as a new category this year.

To vote visit: https://unga-conference.org/pioneers-in-sdgs-awards-nominees/ and enter 27 to vote. If you don't already know about The Welcome Mat you can read more here.