The Fred Hollows Humanity Award recognises young people, aged 9 to 11, who follow in Fred’s footsteps by making a positive difference in their community. It celebrates youth who show compassion, integrity and kindness in their everyday lives, just as Fred did.
The Humanity Awards are a global movement that have recognised thousands of young people from across New Zealand, Australia and Hong Kong.
Teachers, coaches, local leaders, community and family members are all encouraged to nominate any young person, aged 9 to 11, who embodies the values of kindness, compassion and integrity.
Whether it’s helping others, supporting good causes or volunteering, no act of kindness is too small to recognise.
The nominations for the awards are open from Monday 14 July 2025 and will close on Friday 19 September 2025.
Find out more about the Humanity Awards and past recipients below, including access to the nomination form.
Any young person aged 9 to 11 (Year 5 or 6 at school) who has demonstrated the values of compassion, integrity and kindness. When selecting your nominees, think of specific examples of when they have demonstrated these qualities.
Anyone can nominate a young person for the awards. Teachers, coaches, local leaders, other students, community, and family members are all able to nominate.
Please do, we encourage it! Just ensure you provide examples of how the individual/s have shown kindness, compassion and integrity. These help us in the selection process to understand how the nominee has been living these values.
When nominations close, we choose 10 finalists and one of them becomes our Junior Ambassador for the year.
All ten finalists will receive a goody bag, and all nominees will be recognised with a certificate.
Thanks to Specsavers, the Junior Ambassador will extend their humanity by allocating $5,000 to The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ Pacific programme of their choice to help us end avoidable blindness!
The Junior Ambassador will also be gifted $1,000 – thanks to Corporate Traveller and Donaldson Brown NZ – to implement an initiative in their school or community that seeks to make the world around them better.
You must have the permission of the parent or legal guardian of the young person in order to nominate them.
Please ask the parent or legal guardian before nominating the person. You must also know the parent or legal guardian’s contact details.
The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ’s Communications Team will send media releases and photos to local newspapers, publications and radio stations, congratulating the finalists.
The reason we ask for a local publication rather than a nationwide one such as the NZ Herald is that these stories are more community-based and have a higher success rate of getting publicity in regional news outlets.
We understand that many local newspapers have ceased publishing. If there is an online publication that has replaced it, or a local radio station, please enter that instead.
Te Rapa School Teacher, Mike McCurry, nominated Isabelle, describing her natural tendency to help others, embrace responsibility and support community projects.
Harry was nominated by his Principal, Hannah Moorhouse for his passion towards his surroundings and taking care of the people and environment around him.
Madison was nominated by Deputy Head of Saint Francis Xavier Catholic School, Jennie Dean for her kindness, support, and big picture future thinking.
There are many ways you can support the Humanity Awards beyond submitting nominations. One simple way is to help us spread the word!
These downloadable assets are designed to help you promote this year’s award and encourage others to nominate someone they know.
Meghan Swart
Media & Communications Specialist
The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ is a registered charitable organisation under the Charities Act 2005.
Charities Commission registration number is CC23722.
© 2025 The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ. All rights reserved.
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