A couple of days ago, at 7 in the morning, she was handing out sauce sachets at Wellington Railway Station.

In two weeks she will be flying to Vientiane in Laos to attend a regional youth leadership workshop.

22-year-old Laura Owen is a 4th-year student at Victoria University who is concerned about much wider things than just her law and arts studies.

“I have always had an interest in human rights, much of my history major has a human rights focus, and I am currently studying international law,” Laura said.

“I know people involved in the Campaign Against Land Mines (CALM) and have been extremely impressed by their work in helping land mine victims, and their tireless campaign against the use of land mines.”

The free tomato sauce sachets Laura was handing out to early morning commuters are an award-winning fundraising promotion for clearing landmines and unexploded cluster munitions in South Lebanon.

“It was great that a member of the Wellington Lebanese community joined us at the station,” Laura said.

The Youth Leadership Workshop Laura is attending from 12-15 October in Vientiane, Laos, is organised by the Australian Network to Ban Landmines and the Lao Youth Union. She joins 30 other young people from the Asia-Pacific region who are willing to commit to working in their country for a mine-free world.

The sauce sachet promotion supporting the campaign to ban land mines has won two gold public relations awards for Auckland’s Publicis Mojo agency, one at Cannes.

“Minister of Disarmament Phil Goff has endorsed the sauce sachets; the NZ government and CALM work together in promoting the international campaign to ban landmines,” said CALM Convenor David Zwartz