For some of these girls, it has been more than two years since they have been home or seen their parents, siblings and friends – celebrations, milestones and family events have been missed, young siblings have grown up and loved ones have passed on.
Joy Kim, from South Korea, has been boarding at Dio for the past four years and is now in her final year at school. Her last visit to her home country was in December 2019 and this was also the last time she saw her parents. With a visit home now planned for the school holidays in just a few weeks’ time, Joy is counting down the days, hours and minutes until she departs.
“It has been very hard not being able to go home or see family, hang out with my friends and eat Korean food. I have two younger sisters – one is now 14 years old and the other is six. She was only four years old when I left! It’s hard being her big sister from afar and I’ve missed out on seeing her grow up over the last two years.”
Social media has been a lifesaver for many of these students who have used Facetime, KakaoTalk, WeChat and other platforms to talk to family and friends back home, often on a daily basis.
Dio has been particularly conscious of the impact the pandemic restrictions has had on its international boarders. A Navigating Life programme was set up to help the girls express and share their feelings, teachers check in with students on a regular basis and protocols were put in place to keep the boarders safe and well during Covid lockdowns. The pastoral care team was expanded to include a Chinese student Guidance Counsellor to provide additional support when needed. Staff also sacrificed their own personal time to keep the Boarding House open for longer, including during the holidays, as well as finding homestays for students who were unable to return home.
While it has been a challenging few years, there have been some silver linings including wonderful homestay families who have taken international students under their wings and into their homes during holidays and through the lockdown periods.
Joy said: “They treated me like a member of the family; they were so kind to me. Another homestay has a young daughter who I really enjoyed being with because she reminded me of my siblings – she was so cute.”
Director of International Students at Diocesan, Simone Clark, said: “The girls have shown incredible resilience and have formed very close friendships with other international students in the same situation. They have remained academically successful despite their personal situations and are always looking on the positive side of things. For many, New Zealand provided a sense of safety and relative freedom compared to their home country.”
