Change of direction - KAVIESHA'S A CLASS act

After moving to Aotearoa from war-torn Sri Lanka, an Auckland teacher is helping a new generation of Kiwi kids through dance and drama

As Sri Lanka's longrunning civil war drew to a close in 2009, Kaviesha Abeysinghe Perera used to travel on her high school van and worry that there were bombs about to explode. While she may not have had such fears in 2010 when, aged 18, she arrived in Aotearoa, there were other challenges ahead.

The chance for a good education was one of the main reasons why Kaviesha's parents brought her and younger sisters Raviesha, now 29, and Nethasha, 20, from Sri Lanka's capital, Colombo, to make a new home here.

But arriving in Auckland was a huge culture shock, especially seeing so many people from a multitude of different cultures in one sprawling city, having to learn to speak English and acclimatising to winters colder than they'd ever experienced.

"When we started at Kelston Girls' College - I was in Year 12 - I had to learn to speak English and it was quite challenging at the beginning," recalls Kaviesha, now 30. "I didn't understand some of the things that the girls at school were talking about. Everything was different - the environment, the houses and the roads were so much more developed.

"We all came knowing we were moving countries, so we all came with the thought that we had to be able to adapt. Our home in Sri Lanka was built by my dad and was three storeys with a big garden. But we left all that to temporarily stay in a converted garage."