Ōhaupō university student Pieta Bouma – who became a paraplegic in 2019 – was guest speaker at Sacred Heart Girls’ College in Hamilton last week.
Pieta, then aged 19, was on a gap year and volunteering as an English teacher while doing environmental work in Ecuador when she fell off a rope swing onto a concrete path, broke her back and punctured a lung.
Her parents David Bouma and Monique Reymer, along with other family members, were visiting her in Ecuador when the accident happened.
Sacred Heart Girls’ College student and Board of Trustees representative Nyahsa Mupfurutsa thanks Pieta Bouma for her presentation. Photo: Penny Thompson.
She is now studying a conjoint degree in global studies and health sciences at the University of Auckland majoring in population health.
Pieta – who describes herself as an activist, writer and passionate about social justice – is an old girl of Sacred Heart and was speaking at the all-girls Catholic school as part of its whanaungatanga programme.
She still participates in several sports, including waka ama and two years ago climbed Mount Kakepuku which featured in the Bulletproof Attitude Live video series.
