Profiles
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Focus on employment
Gail Mann is the brains and energy behind Gale's Café in central Wellington. Running a café had been a lifelong dream and Gail took a step forward into that dream by completing the City Council's Small Business Management course before opening the doors of her own business.
Eighteen months on from that day she acknowledges that her partial sight has created challenges, particularly in using the cash register and EFTPOS machine. Gail has a "just-get-on-and-do-it" attitude though. Her recipe for a successful café is excellent customer service, delicious food and fabulous coffee. She makes nearly all the food on the premises.
Besides that, she says, the elements common to any great business are a passion to succeed, a good accountant and trustworthy business partners and staff.
Located near the railway station, Gale's Café is open 5.30am - 4.30pm each weekday.
Barry Burgess is the first to admit that one of his skills is the gift of the gab. Becoming a salesperson for adaptive technology equipment seemed a good option when he lost his sight ten years ago.
Now he's setting up his own home-based business called Pacific Vision Equipment and Services, acting as an agent for screen readers, screen magnification programs and other adaptive technology.
Barry sells to the Foundation, Workbridge, Enable and to individual members of the Foundation.
Being legally blind is a distinct advantage because he uses and knows the equipment he sells inside out. A sighted person doing his job, he says, would be like someone who never drives giving advice on how to buy a car.
There have been challenges, including coping with the legalities of business plans, agent contracts and finances, and giving up a regular paycheck. He's had a lot of moral and practical support though, particularly from the IT department of the Foundation and from his wife. Members have also encouraged him because they value his sound advice.
You can contact Barry at pacific.vision@xtra.co.nz or phone (03) 328 8662.
If you have an idea for a business that you would like to investigate further, contact your nearest Vocational Advisor. They are based in the Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin offices of the Foundation.
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The Kindred Sharp Trust turns five
This year is the fifth anniversary of the Kindred Sharp Trust. The trust was endowed to the Foundation for the benefit of blind and sight-impaired children up to the age of 12. Its benefactors are a retired couple without children who, all the same, felt great sympathy for children with disabilities and couldn't imagine how hard life must be for those without sight.
The couple have little interest in material possessions. They prefer to spend their time and energy exchanging their services for donations to the trust fund. They provide transport to the airport for those who can't drive, they pot up plants and sell them, bake cakes and so on. These small actions have added up to a significant difference in the everyday lives of many children.
The couple set up the trust with an initial capital amount and have been steadily adding to this figure, growing it to $60,000 in only 5 years, a goal they didn't expect to reach until the 12 year mark. The interest generated from the capital is used for grants.
Most of the children who have received grants are multi-disabled. In recognition of the stresses such huge needs place on parents, the application process is very simple. The only condition is that the child must have been blind since birth or by the age of two. So far, $29,000 has been given out for computer equipment, special chairs and desks, laminators and also for paid lessons for parents to learn to communicate with their blind children.
A group of parents who were meeting at Homai, the national school for blind and vision impaired children, have received money to set up a playgroup. They've bought musical equipment, airbeds, jellybeans for computers, physio equipment and CDs with their $2,500 grant.
Sandhya Kesha, one of the group members, says, "It's been great. It's not things you can have at home. The playgroup gives the kids a chance to experience new things. The reactions on their faces are amazing to see. Little smiles and laughs. Positive stuff."
To apply for a grant from the Kindred Sharp Trust, contact Dianne Armstrong at darmstrong