Tauranga principal and new Labour candidate Jan Tinetti has been honoured by Amnesty International Tauranga Moana for outstanding contributions to human rights, peace and social justice.
Mrs Tinetti was awarded the Robert Anderson Memorial Award by Mayor Greg Brownless in a Mayoral reception last week. The trophy is a wooden art piece crafted by Otumoetai College students in the form of an open book.
Dr Robert Anderson was a tireless worker for social justice. He gave many lectures, published numerous articles and wrote several books on a wide range of issues. His widow, Jean, attended the function along with Mrs Tinetti's family and friends and members from Amnesty International Tauranga Moana.
Mrs Tinetti is the sixth recipient of the Robert Anderson award. Others have been the Amnesty Group at Tauranga Girls College, Graham Cameron of the Merivale Community Centre, Mona Hamilton, Terry Molloy and Chennoah Walford.
Mrs Tinetti is principal of Merivale School, Tauranga's only decile 1 school, and has long been an advocate for her community and children. This was highlighted in 2016 when Tauranga's housing issues resulted in 10 per cent of children from the school being homeless or living in temporary accommodation.
Mrs Tinetti highlighted the issues in local and national media and partnered with the Merivale Community Centre to organise and lead a community meeting to develop short, medium and long term solutions.
Under Mrs Tinetti's leadership, the school feeds breakfast to about half its roll each day through the Kick Start breakfast programme. The school team had an unwavering passion to ensure everything was done for students to ensure they were in the right space for learning.
Lunches are also provided by Loaves and Fishes and other community members for children who don't have them. Ms Tinetti has worked to ensured all community members knew there was no shame when there was no food in the house and the school would ensure children were fed.
In 2016 Ms Tinetti completed a Master of Education with first class honours. The focus of her research was around the positive behaviour for learning framework. She has led the implementation of this in Merivale.
"I have fought tirelessly to ensure our children and community receive the best educational and life opportunities and that they as people are strongly valued by the wider Tauranga community," she said.
Earlier this month, Mrs Tinetti was announced as the new Labour Party candidate for Tauranga.
In presenting the award to Ms Tinetti, Tauranga Mayor Greg Brownless acknowledged her work in the fields of human rights, peace and social justice and stated that she was most deserving of this very prestigious award.