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Community Leaders Programme participant
Parveen Shankar – Community Leaders Programme Graduate
The Community Leaders Programme is an opportunity for Waitakere people to receive training and qualification in the area of active recreation, physical activity/exercise, nutrition, first aid and health and safety. The programme basically gives participants the motivation, confidence and ability to safely develop, lead and facilitate exercise classes within their communities as well as being armed with basic nutritional knowledge. This initiative is proudly supported by ASB Community Trust and delivered by Sport Waitakere in conjunction with Netfit, First Aid NZ Ltd, and The National Heart Foundation – Pacific Island Heartbeat Team.
Parveen Shankar recently graduated from the Community Leaders Programme, but what makes his graduation even more special is that Parveen is fully blind. Despite being blind, Parveen participated in everything and anything. Whether Parveen was leading an exercise class, cooking a healthy meal, or learning how to facilitate an aqua class, he was always full of enthusiasm and laughter.
However, Parveen is no stranger to physical activity or sport having been a member of the New Zealand Blind Cricket Team for the past 3 years. He has just finished attending a training camp with the 2009 team who are enthusiastically preparing to take on the Aussies in the upcoming One Day International (ODI) and 20/20 series in January 2010. He has been involved as a B1 (Totally Blind) player since October 2006, where he was first selected to represent New Zealand at the Blind Cricket World Cup held in Islamabad, Pakistan.
As well as being involved in New Zealand Blind Cricket, Parveen also is a key member in the Manukau South Blind Sports Club which helps to provide other sports such as Blind Hockey and Goal Ball.
Parveen is also involved as a keen committee member in a youth group called SEYFF, or Support and Education for Youth their Friends and Families. This support group helps organise workshops, meetings, camps and provides support and advice to other blind people to have the confidence to be lead independent lives
As a result of being involved and subsequently graduating from the Community Leaders Programme, Praveen’s confidence has soared! The knowledge gained has seen Parveen being to take warm-ups, cool-downs, running stretching sessions and other activities with his NZ Blind Cricket team. He also is facilitating workshops with his Sports Club and SEYFF group. However the changes and teaching hasn’t just been with his involvement in theses groups, he is also implementing changes at home with his family. He has made several changes to his and his family’s diet/eating habits as a result of nutrition training/lessons learnt. He is also started making changes to overall health and his family’s approach to active recreation.
Some words from Parveen:
“The Community Leaders Programme I attended was awesome! I found it to be educational where I learnt a lot, but also had lots of fun. It was a programme where I had the opportunity to prove my self as a blind person, to prove to everyone including myself that I’m also capable of doing things that others are able to do.
It was a chance for me to meet and make friends with lots of different ethnicities, which was especially enjoyable. I learnt numerous things such as how to balance your eating habits, nutritious requirements, and first aid which was very important and I really enjoyed. The physical activity training was fantastic, as I am able to use my skills and knowledge with blind group and with my New Zealand Blind Cricket team.
To conclude this programme has given me the wide range of exposure to meet people, gather information on how to keep healthy, train the mind, learn heaps of interesting and educational things which I can now share with my friends and family. I would suggest the Community Leaders Programme to anyone who is interested in improving the health and well being of others, because its also a programme that helps you be happier, healthier, safer, and especially people like me, become more independent. I was also proud of being able to do things that sighted people take for granted and can do easily. It was also great to be involved with many different people without any communication problems. Thanks to this programme I was able to get to know many different people, they were able to get to know me, as well as making heaps of new friends.”
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The Community Leaders Programme is an opportunity for Waitakere people to receive training and qualification in the area of active recreation, physical activity/exercise, nutrition, first aid and health and safety. The programme basically gives participants the motivation, confidence and ability to safely develop, lead and facilitate exercise classes within their communities as well as being armed with basic nutritional knowledge. This initiative is proudly supported by ASB Community Trust and delivered by Sport Waitakere in conjunction with Netfit, First Aid NZ Ltd, and The National Heart Foundation – Pacific Island Heartbeat Team.
Parveen Shankar recently graduated from the Community Leaders Programme, but what makes his graduation even more special is that Parveen is fully blind. Despite being blind, Parveen participated in everything and anything. Whether Parveen was leading an exercise class, cooking a healthy meal, or learning how to facilitate an aqua class, he was always full of enthusiasm and laughter.
However, Parveen is no stranger to physical activity or sport having been a member of the New Zealand Blind Cricket Team for the past 3 years. He has just finished attending a training camp with the 2009 team who are enthusiastically preparing to take on the Aussies in the upcoming One Day International (ODI) and 20/20 series in January 2010. He has been involved as a B1 (Totally Blind) player since October 2006, where he was first selected to represent New Zealand at the Blind Cricket World Cup held in Islamabad, Pakistan.
As well as being involved in New Zealand Blind Cricket, Parveen also is a key member in the Manukau South Blind Sports Club which helps to provide other sports such as Blind Hockey and Goal Ball.
Parveen is also involved as a keen committee member in a youth group called SEYFF, or Support and Education for Youth their Friends and Families. This support group helps organise workshops, meetings, camps and provides support and advice to other blind people to have the confidence to be lead independent lives
As a result of being involved and subsequently graduating from the Community Leaders Programme, Praveen’s confidence has soared! The knowledge gained has seen Parveen being to take warm-ups, cool-downs, running stretching sessions and other activities with his NZ Blind Cricket team. He also is facilitating workshops with his Sports Club and SEYFF group. However the changes and teaching hasn’t just been with his involvement in theses groups, he is also implementing changes at home with his family. He has made several changes to his and his family’s diet/eating habits as a result of nutrition training/lessons learnt. He is also started making changes to overall health and his family’s approach to active recreation.
Some words from Parveen:
“The Community Leaders Programme I attended was awesome! I found it to be educational where I learnt a lot, but also had lots of fun. It was a programme where I had the opportunity to prove my self as a blind person, to prove to everyone including myself that I’m also capable of doing things that others are able to do.
It was a chance for me to meet and make friends with lots of different ethnicities, which was especially enjoyable. I learnt numerous things such as how to balance your eating habits, nutritious requirements, and first aid which was very important and I really enjoyed. The physical activity training was fantastic, as I am able to use my skills and knowledge with blind group and with my New Zealand Blind Cricket team.
To conclude this programme has given me the wide range of exposure to meet people, gather information on how to keep healthy, train the mind, learn heaps of interesting and educational things which I can now share with my friends and family. I would suggest the Community Leaders Programme to anyone who is interested in improving the health and well being of others, because its also a programme that helps you be happier, healthier, safer, and especially people like me, become more independent. I was also proud of being able to do things that sighted people take for granted and can do easily. It was also great to be involved with many different people without any communication problems. Thanks to this programme I was able to get to know many different people, they were able to get to know me, as well as making heaps of new friends.”
Back to Case Studies
