As a youth ambassador for Shakti, Ranisha Chand has led protests against discrimination and abuse, and run workshops at high schools and businesses to raise awareness of these issues. She tells reporter Brittany Keogh about how her own experience of bullying inspired her to stand up for others.
When Ranisha Chand first saw the nasty comments a classmate she considered to be a friend had posted online she was shocked.
The shy teenager had moved to Auckland from Fiji just a year earlier and was still learning English when the other girl started cyberbullying her in 2015, when she was in Year 10 at Papatoetoe High School.
Ranisha Chand, 19, has been shining a light on and campaigning against discrimination and abuse in New Zealand since 2014.
It continued for eight months. She felt helpless and heartbroken.
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She was called illiterate for speaking with an accent.
There were remarks about my skirt being higher than my grades and all that kind of nonsense, Chand says.
In hindsight, Chand believes the young woman, who previously had been the top of the class, lashed out because she felt threatened by Chand’s academic achievements.
However, at the time the bullying knocked her self esteem.
I never held anything against the person who bullied me. [But] I just stopped trusting a lot of people around me. For me, it was about am I not good enough?,” Chand says.
Her outlook started to change when she saw an ad for Shakti, an organisation that supports migrant and refugee women of Asian, African and Middle Eastern origin, requesting volunteers to bake cupcakes for its fundraiser and decided to help out.
Over the next few months Chand got more involved with the not-for-profit. Her confidence grew.
I remember when I did my first public speech it was during a school assembly I was shaking. But after walking off that stage I felt very good about myself,” she says.
I just realised that at the end of the day, if someone needs a voice and you can be that voice then why not represent them.”
Ranisha Chand led the Future Without Violence march in Auckland in 2018.
In 2017, she led a protest for Shakti’s youth chapter against bullying and discrimination.
The next year she organised a second march down Queen St to raise awareness of forced marriage and rape culture in New Zealand.
Finding out 76 cases of forced marriage had been reported to Shakti had lit a fire in her belly.
That made me very, very mad. Most of those girls were under 16. I related to them in a weird way. I was like oh my gosh these girls need to be in school, they need to not have the pressure from family trying to get into a marriage.
The discovery of a such an incident in her own school community further opened her eyes to the prevalence of the issue.
Chand also started mentoring peers who were grappling with difficult issues, including questions about their identity and sexuality or unplanned pregnancies.
For me that was the way I healed [from the bullying], by helping others,” she says.
Ranisha Chand holds one of the many awards she has won for her work.
Now 19 and studying anatomy and politics at the University of Otago, Chand continues to speak at schools and run workshops at a range of organisation in her role as a youth ambassador for Shakti.
Hearing personal stories from survivors of abuse, bullying and discrimination inspires her to continue pushing for change.
She dreams of becoming a gynaecologist after completing her degree, so she can help victims of sexual and domestic violence.
We talk about how to avoid rape, sexual assault and all those kinds of things, but when girls and women get to a point when they do experience such horrific acts, they dont really have a pathway to guide them and thats one of the reasons in so many cases they dont get reported.
I would love to work on a project where I could do my bit and give my input to support women by providing probably a tool kit within the hospitals for women to have access to which gives them more information on how to approach help.
High school students participate in a protest against forced marriage and rape culture, which Ranisha Chand organised.
Chand’s advocacy work has attracted national recognition.
She won the New Zealand Youth Award in 2018 and in 2020 was named on the YWCA’s Y25 list of whine toa.
To be honest theyre amazing milestones. I feel privileged to have those achievements. Not everyone is able to have those opportunities, she says of the accolades.
Whenever Im having a low time I just look at them and Im like I did something to deserve them, so the show must go on and you must carry on the work.
Chand has been selected as a finalist in the Young Leaders category of Stuff and Westpac NZs annual Women of Influence Awards.
Stuff chief executive and owner Sinead Boucher says the calibre of the 2020 applicants blew the judges away.
New Zealand women see a problem, a need or an opportunity and apply themselves to creating something better, despite any adversity and uncertainty they come up against.
In every story you hear the guts, stamina and conviction that have got these women to where they are today making real change in the world.
FULL LIST OF FINALISTS:
ARTS & CULTURE
Beth Hill, Emma Espiner, Jacqui Moyes, Julie Nolan, Kiri Nathan, Libby Hakaraia, Parris Goebel, Sally Bodkin-Allen and Sara-Jane Elika.
BOARD & MANAGEMENT
Dame Alison Paterson, Anita Vaafusuaga, Hilary Walton, Lynette Buurman, Nicki Douglas, Patricia Reade, Riana Manual, Stacey Shortall and Ziena Jalil.
BUSINESS ENTERPRISE
Brooke Roberts, Helen Townsend, Jaime Brown, Jessie Wong, Nikki Connors, Sonya Williams and Victoria Lessing.
COMMUNITY HERO
Chrissie Cowan, Christine Liggins, Deborah Manning, Holly Carrington, Raechel Osborne, Ranjna Patel and Sonia Thursby.
DIVERSITY
Andrea Blair, Cassandra McAdams, Frederique Vanholsbeeck, Jo Hacking, Julie Raine, Safia Afrin, Suzanne McFadden and Tupe Solomon-Tanoai.
GLOBAL
Anne-Marie Brook, Denise Arnold, Frances Hughes, Jane Kelsey, Johanna Wood, Rachel Petero and Dame Winnie Laban.
INNOVATION, SCIENCE & HEALTH
Beverley Lawton, Cather Simpson, Jacqui Maguire, Judy Lawrence, Kristie Amadio, Marian Johnson, Samantha Holdsworth, Sarah Gordon, Siouxsie Wiles and Suzanne Pitama.
PUBLIC POLICY
Allyn “Aliya” Danzeisen, Annie Aranui, Emma Grigg, Dame Karen Poutasi, Karina McHardy, Kirstie Hewlett, Nicole Rosie and Una Jagose.
RURAL
Bridgit Hawkins, Felicity Clark, Fiona Gower, Jessie Chan, Kimberly Crewther, Petra Muellner and Trish Fraser.
YOUNG LEADER
Aigagalefili Fepulea’i Tapua’i, Emilly Fan, Emily Hacket Pain, Jacinta Gulasekharam, Ranisha Chand, Siobhan Terry, Talei Bryant, Tamatha Paul and Tori McNoe.
The Women of Influence 2020 winners will be announced at an awards dinner at the Aotea Centre in Auckland on November 17. For more information about the awards, visit www.womenofinfluence.co.nz.read more
Women of Influence finalists announced: Advocating for abuse victims helped Ranisha Chand heal
