A Lifetime Champion for Literacy

For more than 40 years, Invercargill educationalist Helen Campbell MNZM has quietly but powerfully changed the lives of children across Southland by giving them something many take for granted; a voice.

Originally trained as a classroom teacher, Mrs Campbell extended her training in 1990 to become a resource teacher of literacy. This has remained her passion shaping her dedication to this work far beyond the classroom. In 2009 a conversation with fellow members of the Invercargill East Rotary Club sparked an idea and saw her develop “The Literacy Starter Kit for Five Year Olds”. This kit has now been distributed to over 22,000 five-year-olds in Southland. The kit contains various literacy tools including a guide for parents, a children’s book, magnetic letters, a whiteboard, and a list of recommended book titles. Mrs Campbell was subsequently awarded Rotary’s highest honour, the Paul Harris Fellow for this work.

The impact however, that matters most to Helen is far less visible; the ability for these children to learn to read and speak competently and to have the self-belief and confidence that follows.

Awarded Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2012 for services to children’s literacy, Mrs Campbell also developed the Talk First Programme to support five-year-olds arriving at school with limited oral language, giving them the foundations they needed to succeed. The intervention identifies these students who require urgent oral language support to ensure they can succeed in literacy.

One child, one book, one voice at a time.

“The world will be better because I was important in the life of a child.”

Helen Campbell MNZM