Abbas Nazari recently met online with students, from Pāpāmoa College, and all over New Zealand, who were interested to hear his story as a refugee to New Zealand.

This was an interesting opportunity for a group of students to consider what it is like to move to a new country with very little, including having to break through cultural and language barriers.

Abbas Nazari was born in Afghanistan and lived there until the age of seven. When the Taliban were at the height of their power in 2001, his parents were faced with a choice: stay and face persecution in their homeland or seek security for their young children elsewhere. His family’s harrowing journey to safety is well documented in his book After the Tampa: From Afghanistan to New Zealand.

Abbas began learning English as an eight-year-old at Riccarton Primary School and went on to place third in the NZ National Spelling Bee a few years later. Since then, Abbas graduated from the University of Canterbury with a BA (Hons) and attained a Master's in Security Studies from Georgetown University, Washington DC as a Fulbright Scholar.

Here is an interesting news clip about his story.

Year 10 student, Valeria Gomez Sandoval, used the information gathered from this online talk to touch on the plight of Afghan Refugees in her speech on the New Zealand Refugee Quota;

"The fleeing people of Afghanistan need New Zealand's help. We cannot do anything about the turmoil in Afghanistan but we can help the people who are leaving and make the harsh journey easier for them by giving them assurance that they and their families will be accepted into the safety of New Zealand. New Zealand has the capacity, the resources, the heart and kindness. New Zealand can help. So why don’t we?"

It was a wonderful opportunity to meet someone who has been highly successful even at such a young age, and they can continue to follow his career.