News
- Medal of Merit for building
- Census March 7th 2006
- Southern Cross Games
- Preliminary Blind Week results
- NZ Community Trust
- New website launched
- Fatima and the Queen of Tonga
- Book for Outward Bound 2006
- Services Delivery Project
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Medal of Merit for building
John Bullen, General Manager Bledisloe Estate Trust, has received a medal of merit for his contribution to the practice and science of building. The New Zealand Institute of Building (Inc) medal is only given out once every two years and is the highest award the Institute can bestow on a member. John's a fellow of the Institute and has shown a long standing commitment to the promotion of their professional practices. What a great achievement, congratulations John!
Census March 7th 2006
The Department of Statistics has approached the Foundation to have 2006 Census material transcribed into accessible formats to be distributed to members who have braille, audio and electronic file as their first preferred format. Members will be able to familiarise themselves with the Census questionnaire in their preferred format. All responses will still need to be returned on an official Statistics NZ print form.
Those members with audio as their preferred format will also have the option of receiving Māori and English versions of the text. If your preferred format is audio, and you would like the census material in Te Reo as well as English, please contact AIC. Within the Auckland Region Ph: 355 6939, otherwise 0800 24 33 33, option 3.
Southern Cross Games
New Zealand is hosting the 2006 Southern Cross Games. The games will be held in Auckland from 18th-22nd of April 2006.
The Southern Cross Games (formerly the Pan Pacific Games) are a biennial international event for student teams from Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific regions.
All full-time New Zealand students aged between 9 and 20 will have the opportunity to participate providing they can carry out the specific activity they have entered (e.g. swimming the length of a pool, or running the circuit of the track).
Preliminary Blind Week results
Thanks to all those wonderful volunteer collectors who got out on the streets and in the malls and shopping centres for Blind Week. The preliminary result for 2005 is $928,411 with alot more still to be counted.
NZ Community Trust
Our thanks to the New Zealand Community Trust for their outstanding commitment to RNZFB Library Services and Guide Dog Services. Over the many years they have supported
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the RNZFB, the staff at the Trust have shown a special interest in the library and our guide dogs – carefully researching their guide dog names (like Edison). With two major grants a year, their contribution helps many members.
New website launched
The new RNZFB website was launched on 4 November and we've already had a lot of feedback. This has helped us tweak the site so that it meets member needs. Keep that feedback coming! You'll find the site at www.rnzfb.org.nz
Fatima and the Queen of Tonga
In July Fatima Akehurst (Pacific Services) held a combined BAP and public education programme in Tonga at the Tongan Disabled People's and their Caregivers' conference hosted by the Queen of Tonga. About 50 people attended the workshop which focused on the connection between blindness and diabetes, what support is available in NZ and how the community can help. Fatima shared her experiences as a vision-impaired person and invited others to do the same. Sighted guide techniques were also shown. The workshop was the first of its kind in Tonga and participants, including the Queen, enjoyed the experience and gratefully thanked Fatima for raising their awareness. The Queen of Tonga has since offered to pay for Fatima's airfares to run further programmes as part of Tonga's 'Beating Diabetes Project'.
Book for Outward Bound 2006
The next Outward Bound Course for blind and vision-impaired people is coming up on 20-27 May 2006. Applications close 27 January 2006.
So, for further information and an application pack please contact:
Margaret Woods, Outward Bound ph: 0800 OUTWARD (688927)
email:mwoods@outwardbound.co.nz
Services Delivery Project
Adrienne Henderson, Divisional Manager of Quality Assurance will lead a special project to address the waiting list for RNZFB services. The project will look at alternative ways of delivering services to members. It will also consider collaboration with low vision services and linkages to other services, particularly for the elderly (67% of our membership is over 65). Over the next 12-15 months two pilot studies will trial alternative service delivery options. One pilot will be in Dunedin, and the location for the second is yet to be decided.