We announce this year’s Humanity Awards Junior Ambassador

The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ has announced Elly Roadley, from Whangaparaoa School as its Humanity Awards 2020 Junior Ambassador.

The Awards, which are a part of a global movement, were created to recognise passionate children following in the footsteps of our founder and legendary New Zealander, the late Professor Fred Hollows.

Fred became famous for being a social justice activist who championed the right of all people to have high quality and affordable eye care. The Humanity Awards recognise children who also strive to make the world around them better for others and who embody the values of compassion, integrity and kindness.

In a year that has seen our country face some unusual and challenging times, something that has helped has been the humanity of everyday New Zealanders. This humanity was evident in the large number of students that were nominated for the Humanity Awards from throughout New Zealand.

With the outstanding nominations received, it was an incredibly difficult decision to decide on the 2020 Humanity Awards Junior Ambassador. However, Elly's nomination from her teacher, Hamish Ross, stood out above the others for her compassionate nature and selfless acts.

"Elly is a caring, thoughtful and responsible child who always puts others above herself," says Hamish. "She is always helpful towards the younger children in our school and puts her hand up to help as a playground, community and sports leader. Elly is a valued member of her classroom and always shows respect to her teachers and peers and is able to collaborate with any child, doing so without any bias or passing any judgement."

"This year Elly decided to go on a Year 6 Grit camp. For this camp, she had to do something in order to create some of the funds. Elly decided not only that she would do this, but that she would also go above and beyond and do more than required by raising enough money for not only herself but others as well. She did this very secretively and under anonymity."

When Elly decided to raise the money, her parents weren't surprised because "That's just Elly. She's helpful and kind at home, and always shows great sportsmanship. This award just embodies her," they said.

Elly herself was overwhelmed to receive the award, "I feel so surprised and overwhelmed and don't know what to say! Since I was doing some jobs to earn money, I thought I could give it to other people because I'd have some spare. It's really nice we can do stuff for other people, so they don't have to be blind."

We would also like to acknowledge our charity partner Specsavers, who has very kindly donated $5,000. The donation will allow Elly to extend her humanity by allocating these funds to a Fred Hollows Foundation NZ Pacific programme of her choice, to help us end avoidable blindness!