Mrs Chen's letter follows.
Why New Zealand, and not the United States or Australia
When I first decided to take the children abroad to study, I hesitated for a long time.
The United States, Australia, or New Zealand?
Because my plan was one mother taking two children to live and study overseas, what I cared about beyond the schooling was safety, personal security, racism, and whether a mother alone with two children could feel at ease living there.
After weighing a great many things, I chose New Zealand.
Then came the next question, immediately
Having decided on New Zealand, the next question arrived at once: I knew no one there and nothing about the place, so who was going to handle the school, the visas and all the things large and small before departure?
Finding someone I could trust was, for me, a very important decision.
And I happen to be an extremely lazy person (I laugh at myself), with no appetite for enquiring everywhere and comparing everything.
At that time I read a great deal about studying in New Zealand, and I kept seeing Jomel mentioned, with many people grateful for their help. After a while I thought: there must be something about them, for so many people to recommend them.
And they are actually in New Zealand — which mattered enormously to me, and made the whole thing feel far safer and more reliable.
Before we left
From the documents to prepare and apply for before leaving, to recommending schools and helping find a house, and a great many things I would never have thought of — Jomel helped with all of it.
For a mother who knew almost nothing about New Zealand and whose English isn't good, taking two children alone to live in a completely unfamiliar country was genuinely not easy.
But with their help along the way I was able, step by step, to turn what had only been an idea into something real — taking my children abroad to study, to live, and to experience a different culture, something I had wanted to do for a long time.
Arriving is where life actually begins
And I found out later that the help you really need isn't only before you leave.
Once you're here, that's when life actually starts.
In a new country everything takes time to settle into place, and you meet problems you never anticipated. Every time I didn't understand something or ran into difficulty, they still helped seriously and answered my questions.
What happened at school
Recently one of my children had some trouble with the other students. A classmate often said things that made my child uncomfortable, and some of it was unkind.
As a mother, seeing your child under strain over this is painful, and of course you want the school to understand how you feel.
But for someone not confident in English, how do you explain the whole thing? How do you convey what a mother actually feels, what isn't sitting right, and what you'd like the school to do? It isn't as easy as it sounds.
This is where Jomel helped me a great deal again.
They helped me communicate with the teachers, conveyed a mother's thoughts and feelings to the school, and talked through with us how it might be handled and how my child could be better supported there.
It brought home to me that what you really need abroad is not just someone who sorts out the visa and the school application.
Once you're actually here with your children and something goes wrong, having someone who understands both this place and how we think, and who is willing to stand in the middle and help, makes an enormous difference to how safe you feel.
Sometimes I think: if Jomel hadn't been there, who would I have turned to when this came up at school?
Who would have told me how to handle it?
And who would have been the bridge between me and the school?
Why I'm willing to share this
Finally, I should say that I am a very private person and keep a low profile.
I barely use social media, I rarely leave reviews on Google, and I certainly don't share my life and experience publicly.
So for me, being willing to share this is unusual.
The reason is simple.
Along this road I have received a great deal of help from Jomel.
And I hope my own experience gives other parents — those considering bringing their children here who, like me at the start, don't know where to begin or who to trust — one more point of reference.
Thank you, truly, for helping a mother whose English isn't good, who knew nothing about New Zealand, and who had two children with her, to do something that had felt very difficult.
Thank goodness I found them. ❤️
The help Mrs Chen describes corresponds to ourstudy planningandsettling-in services. Communicating with the school is part of the follow-up after term starts; who does what is set out onAbout. Every family's situation differs. This letter is Mrs Chen's own experience and is not a promise as to any application outcome.
Further reading
Studying in New Zealand: planning from primary to university
Settling in: the house is found before you arrive
Why Jomel: six questions worth asking