Rowena Wood

New Plymouth

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Rowena was born in Stepney, East London to a single mother. Growing up as a teenager in ‘Thatcher’s Britain’ gave her a deeper awareness into Government power, its potential for misuse and the devastating consequences that it can cause to people’s lives. She and her husband and their then two year old son moved to New Zealand in 2009. Her second child was born here. Since emigrating Rowena’s love for New Zealand has gone from strength to strength, she proudly describes New Zealand as ‘the best little country in the world’. Rowena describes herself as an “ordinary person standing up for what is right” but of course, is far from ordinary, because it takes enormous courage, grit and determination to go from concerned citizen to standing as a candidate.

“These are not normal times - we have reached an historic tipping point in New Zealand where ordinary people must stand up. We all have a role to play in this and we will all need to do this together. Failure to act on the current government's approach could have potentially devastating consequences for our beautiful country, our democracy and ultimately our freedom.”

Rowena has spent 20 years as a social worker working with people who are struggling with emotional and mental health issues. In 2004 Rowena started, and managed, a community-based charity providing a drug and alcohol treatment service for adolescents. The service was a huge success and was featured in a BBC investigative documentary looking into young people and alcohol misuse. In 2005 she undertook a six-week research trip to the USA, which focused on looking into effective models of residential treatment for young people. In 2006 she received an award from the Queen for the successful completion of the research trip.

Rowena currently runs her own business providing counselling and social work support to New Zealanders who need it. She describes her work as a real honour and is humbled to know that she gets to make a positive contribution to the lives of others every day.

The Covid-19 situation caused waves of fear, isolation and trauma in the lives of already vulnerable people and Rowena is standing in an effort to provide balance to people’s daily lives. She is deeply concerned about the discrepancies in the information that we have been given and will be demanding answers, honesty and transparency.