Fleur and John Latham
Fleur and John Latham, of Christchurch, received the Queen's Service Medal for services to education and the community. They have been education advisors for the Non-Enrolled Truancy Service for more than 10 years. They have worked with the Ministry of Education to locate and counsel young people who are persistent truants. Of the more than 750 students that have been referred to them, more than 90% have been successfully re-integrated into the education system. They were the founders of Friends of the Pacific which, from 1979 to 1992, arranged for some 270 New Zealand school students to spend three weeks in the school holidays with communities in Tonga, Samoa, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands.