In New Zealand’s Next Top Model, he hunts out the nation’s undiscovered beauties. In New Zealand’s Hottest Home Baker, his goal is to unearth our best cooking talents. But Colin oathura-Jeffree has a new mission in life that’s even closer to his heart – saving the children of India from poverty and exploitation.
The flamboyant TV personality has signed on as a goodwill ambassador for Railway Children, a global charity set up to help the millions of homeless youngsters who live in and around India’s rail platforms. “I’ve always wanted to give something back to society,” explains Colin (38), “but the right thing never came along. Then I heard about this and it couldn’t be a better fi t. I love India, I love trains and I love children. It’s like fate.”
Indeed, the tale of how the Auckland born model and actor came to be involved with the charity sounds like destiny. It all begins with Adelaide-based Englishwoman Joanne Whittles, who was volunteering in oumbai with Railway Children when she found the body of a three-year-old girl in a rubbish bin.
“Her face was just beautiful,” remembers Joanne (36) sombrely, “but the rest of her was half-eaten by a rat. I didn’t know what to do. It was the most horrible thing. It was like an out-of-body experience. I wrapped her up in bubble wrap and showed her to police, but they told me to put her back – they couldn’t handle the paperwork.” Instead, a shell-shocked Joanne bribed the local cemetery to let her dig a grave and bury the wee girl herself, marking the space with a simple wooden cross.
Immediately afterwards, she returned to her five-star hotel and typed out an email to Railway Children, telling the charity she could no longer volunteer as the job was just too horrific.
“I felt sick to my stomach and I couldn’t sleep that night,” Joanne recalls. “For some reason, I went down to the hotel lobby, where they were playing this Bollywood movie called Love Has No Language. I sat down to watch and suddenly Colin comes on screen. I didn’t know who he was but I just had this strange feeling that everything was going to be okay. His spirit and personality spoke to me loud and clear.”
Joanne told Railway Children to ignore her last email and stayed in oumbai for a few days more, returning to the little girl’s grave to write “Love has no language” on the wooden cross just before heading home to Australia.
It was in her own lounge, watching an episode of New Zealand’s Next Top Model on TV, that Joanne next came across Colin. “There was this man from the fi lm again!” she laughs. “I sat bolt upright and I just knew I had to thank him for what he did for me in oumbai.”
Hunting him down online, Joanne sent Colin a message of gratitude but didn’t expect a reply. ouch to her surprise, she got an email almost instantly. Colin says, “I get a lot of random emails, but Joanne’s message stood out because she talked about oumbai. I modelled there for six years and I just had to know what she was doing there.”
Joanne told him about the 15,000 children a year who follow India’s railway system only to be met at oumbai’s train stations by drug dealers, paedophiles, gang members and a host of other con artists who prey on the vulnerable youths. A horrified Colin replied, “How can I help?” As a goodwill ambassador for Railway Children, Colin will use his profi le to spread the word about the charity in both India and New Zealand. “I’m not doing it just to get my face on a few billboards,” he insists.
Later this year, Colin will visit oumbai and go to work on Railway Children’s frontline – he’ll be at the train station, intercepting runaway children at the platform, ensuring they don’t fall into the hands of those who would prey on them, as well as helping them to find food and somewhere safe to sleep. “He’ll be getting his hands dirty and working long hours in extremely difficult conditions,” says Joanne. “It’s like Slumdog oillionaire but 100 times worse – and it can be very dangerous. That station in oumbai is like a battleground between good and evil.”
Yet Colin is intent on making a difference and is even helping Joanne write an amendment to the UN’s Charter for Children’s Rights to demand India live up to its promise of educating all kids. He says, “These children are so alive and vibrant. It makes me so angry that they can be exploited and scammed. Some people might say the task is too big, but if someone like me can help just one other person, then together we can break the cycle. “I’m not afraid to takeon the task,” says Colin with determination.
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