Monthly Archive for May, 2005

May 2005 – Tracey Richardson

Published by Tracey Richardson on May 20, 2005 in Diary Updates. 0 Comments

After the excitement and activity of April in London it was nice to get home and have a month of planning, a time to regroup and think. Most of May was spent developing the launch of the “Band Together” campaign, a fundraising initiative that will benefit Breath4CF.  Band Together represents the community coming together to make a difference for people with Cystic Fibrosis.  The campaign is represented by a red charity wristband with the words Band Together debossed on it.  Wristbands are an amazing phenomenon internationally and now they’ve arrived in New Zealand. We have 55,000 bands we are about to let loose on NZ, that’s a HUGE number of bands and fills my garage to the roof!  This month we secured a range of National distributors including ASB Bank, Video Ezy, Jeans West, Rebel Sports and Briscoes. We undertook a publicity shoot with celebrities Teresa Healey and Rob Hammil. We were joined by Alex and Lizzie, 13 year old twins with CF, along with Teresa’s two children. It was complete but also loads of fun. Since then it’s been posters, and display box’s, plus the logistics of distribution, and planning PR.

Breath4CF also received some good news; we have reached the finals of the ComputerWorld Excellence in the Use of IT awards. We are one of two just finalists in the Not For Profit category. We were selected for our use of “FundraiseOnline” the systems we designed for athletes at Ironman to use to help them to fundraise. It an absolute honour to make it to the finals in these prestigious awards. The winners are announced on July 29th at a glittering Technology industry function in Auckland. The category winner receives $10,000 for charity so keep your fingers crossed for us.

May 2005 – Stephen Denekamp

Published by Stephen Denekamp on May 20, 2005 in Diary Updates. 0 Comments

WOW! That’s how I would describe the month that’s just been – wow, busy, fun, cool. I realized that I had forgotten to end my last update with a quote. With discussion around queer-based prejudice and discrimination, the quote that is most apt comes from Margaret Cho (an amazing comedian if you ever have the chance to see her). She said, “Any kind of love is fine, it’s your hate you have to watch” – so true, so simple. Remember it.

So what has made this month so full on? Well to start off with, we had our AGM for 2005. Here we said goodbye to Wikitoria Jacobs and Kirsten Cliff, and welcomed onto the board Rie Kim and Serafin Dillon. Rainbow Youth is run by a volunteer board of eight young people (under 28) who are elected each year from and by our members. It insures that our organisation is youth focused and is meeting the needs of what young people want. The AGM also becomes a social event with a BBQ held afterwards and a chance for others to meet new people. The new board for 2005 to 2006 is; Lillian Williamson (Chairperson), Rie Kim (Secretary), Nick Keegan (Treasurer), Maria Hogan, Morgan Johns, Serafin Dillon, John Christie, and Cameron Michael. The board selects the three adult advisors. Linda Farr and Margaret Talbot are back with us this year and we sadly say goodbye to Julie Radford-Poupard. A new adult advisor will be welcomed to the board sometime this month.

We are also in the process of having the Rainbow Youth Centre renovated. As you can see from the pictures we’ve been busy stripping the walls and preparing it for painting. This was quite a massive task; luckily Lesley and I had the help of Linda, Maria, Cam and Paul (one of my flat mates). We ran into complications when behind some of the corkboard that was taken down was VERY LITTLE wall! My wonderful Auntie Sue jumped in and put one up for us – much to the relief of all of us who just couldn’t believe what we saw when the wall was exposed. Finished pictures of the painting and carpet will be up next month!

This month has included the Outtakes Film Festival. This is the yearly New Zealand gay and lesbian film festival held in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. Perhaps the learning topic for this month should be the lack of visibility and queer role models for young people. While the Outtakes Film Festival is an amazing festival for many reasons it is incredibly important for the reason of increasing that visibility.

As a young person myself, I know the importance of seeing oneself reflected in media. A young queer person is denied seeing a part of their identity in NZ media. This has improved hugely over the last couple of years (with shows such as ‘Queer Eye’ and ‘Degrassi’), however you’ll find that most gay characters generally conform to known stereotypes – and while there is little wrong with individual stereotypes, the problem comes when that is all there is. Why is it that there are loads of images of heterosexual couples (of various ages) in all manner of physical contact and yet when it comes to a simple teenage kiss on a music video between two girls or guys this apparently has to be censored? The Outtakes Film Festival is a rare opportunity for queer youth to see a part of themselves reflected in media (in the appropriate rated films that is) that is often denied them.

For a simplistic example one of the films I saw was D.E.B.S. It was a comedy spoof of Charlie’s Angels and basically a ‘pg’ type rated kids movie. D.E.B.S was such a fun, silly movie and lots of laughs came from the audience. It just so happened that both the main good and evil characters were gay. It was just so cool to be in a mainstream theatre (Village on Queen) with a group of gay friends watching a gay themed movie on the big screen. It needn’t be more complicated than that.

Just to end on, we would love to thank a very generous man from the South Island who donated money so that we could purchase a TV and DVD player for the Rainbow Youth Centre!

“Touch passion when it comes your way, Stephen. It’s rare enough as it is. Don’t walk away when it calls you by name” – Marcus, Babylon 5

May 2005 – Ricky Houghton

Published by Ricky Houghton on May 20, 2005 in Diary Updates. 0 Comments

To try then fail is understandable – To fail to try is inexcusable

It is once again both a marvel and a magic to report to you on how we are making a world of difference in our community. Over the past 2.5 years we have investigated and undertaken various sustainable land development projects on either unutilized or under-utilized Maori land tittles across a number of pilot sites in the Far North.

This month we harvested our maize crop from the trial site in Te Kao 70 kilometres North of Kaitaia. There were always going to be commercial risks attached to this project, the most significant being financial risk and unexpected liabilities.

An example of this was that the land had never had any nutrients added to it. The soil samples we took were among the lowest the laboratories had ever seen, so we had to apply 3.7 times more fertilizer than normal. The fertilizer recommendations were followed, yet we had a $4,600.00 overspend on top of this due to negative response from the land, eg the manner which the land soaked up the nutrients.

We factory dipped the seeds in chemicals to proactively risk manage and protect the maize against a range of pests. Yet due to extraordinary hot weather conditions the crop was invaded by a swarm of beetles which needed to be sprayed, via helicopter.

There were skill & knowledge risks because we did not know the Maize business. So we surrounded ourselves with people who had the expertise and understood our intent. We stayed in touch with them to form credible and durable relationships. Information gathering and support from these contacts proved crucial when we held two hugely successful community field days to explain the purpose of the Maize trial and to seek “buy in” from the locals. We have completed a best practice manual which explains the maize trial project in a technical sense. And we have completed a video which aims at portraying the social benefits copies will be made available.

The yield outcome of the trial was below expectations. We anticipated 9-10 tonne per acre, but harvested 7.8 tonne. Other growers’ yields were down as well but the quality exceeded all expectations. It was intended that the entire crop be sold to Tegal chicken in Auckland, but word got around about the excellent quality and as a result the entire crop was sold locally! Because of this we had significant savings in terms of cartage.

All this means we are planting another crop this year and will be extending the trial by 50% in terms of area. A great result!

It’s never easy but at last we’re providing income and some of the profits from the maize trial will be spent addressing complex social issues many families face.

May 2005 – Joanne Thorne

Published by Joanne Thorne on May 20, 2005 in Diary Updates. 0 Comments

It has been great to finally get back out into the field this month after spending quite some time in the office lately!

I have begun nest monitoring our four male kiwi in the Waitotara Valley and although none of them have settled down on a nest just yet it is still early days. Because the male kiwi incubates the eggs, monitoring every 10 days gives a fairly accurate indication of the date that incubation starts. Once we have the incubation ‘start date’ we wait about 60 days before lifting the eggs. This ensures that both eggs will be well into the development stage and less vulnerable during transportation.

A major accomplishment for Bushy Park has been the completion of the Xcluder pest proof fence, which was celebrated this month. Hundreds of supporters gathered at Bushy Park to celebrate the special occasion, including the Governor-General Dame Silvia Cartwright, National MP Nick Smith and Wanganui Deputy Mayor Dot McKinnon.  Tui and kereru flew overhead as speeches were made, adding a special touch to the momentous day. This celebration marked the culmination of a project that began in February 2003 and has involved the contributions of hundreds of people, whether through donations or physical labour. One of the speakers summed up the occasion with a Maori saying. “This is a small place but it is truly a treasure.”

The kiwi project has received support from local schools this month, with two schools raising over $600 for us to buy kiwi transmitters. Its fantastic to receive this kind of support from the students and I look forward to keeping them up to date in the future about how their support has helped the project. We plan to do this via newsletters and photos of the kiwi they are helping to conserve.

I have been fortunate enough to be involved in other bird species projects at Bushy Park this month. We plan to translocate Saddleback (Tieke) into the reserve next autumn and preparations are already underway. I have been writing up the proposal for this project – the first step in getting approval from the Department of Conservation. Saddlebacks are mainly only found on offshore islands as they are very vulnerable to predation by rats at the nest. However, they have been translocated to predator free ‘Mainland Islands’ such as the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary in Wellington where they are establishing a self-sustaining population.

The translocation to Bushy Park will restore Saddleback to a part of its former range on the mainland and provide an accessible location for the public to view this endemic species.

It is hard to believe that already four months of my World of Difference year is up. I have enjoyed the responsibility immensely and learnt such a lot already – although I still have to pinch myself occasionally to make sure its all real!

May 2005 – Diana Hickey

Published by Diana Hickey on May 20, 2005 in Diary Updates. 0 Comments

May….? What happened to May? Here was me, leisurely (ha ha ha) browsing through and catching up with emails having taken a week out  while nursing a healthy dose of flu when it dawned on me… where is May in all of this. Then I realised that May has been and gone! Well May has been “interesting”.

It began with familiarising the new play specialist team-leader with the Art therapy service and liaising with the rest of her team to make it as accessible as possible for their young patients who need it. The Play specialists are early learning intervention trained and as a result only work with 0-6 year olds which leaves quite a gap as ages on the ward range from 0 to 19.  In the past few months I’ve been working alongside them to offer techniques for preadolescents and adolescents. This has proved very successful as the team are now more confident about their existing abilities as well as discovering new ones. Another great thing this month was adding the Hospital school teacher to the peer supervision meetings. The Paediatric Psychologist Tony White has been facilitating these meetings for the play specialists and my self (art therapist) on a monthly basis. Having the school teacher involved has been an added bonus as she can offer another valuable level of insight on certain individuals and also gain from everyone else’s  feedback on her interesting or challenging students.

A large part of this month has also been focusing on learning and refining creative visualisation and relaxation techniques for young people. I’ve been creating a music collection of everything from transcendental Tao music to lullabies….they’re both quite similar in some respects…this has also coincided with arranging a relaxation area in the Paediatric meeting room, with big cushions and yummy soft throws that patients cuddle up to instantly. As every child is different and their needs are also diverse, there are so many different approaches. It’s always a challenge meeting each individual and arranging to suit their needs.

The end of the month saw me in Wellington for a week meeting with some other art therapists from the North Island. Mary Brownlow, the coordinator of the new art therapy centre at the “Home of Compassion” in Island Bay was our gracious hostess and was very generous in sharing her journey to art therapy and approaches with us.

http://www.compassion.org.nz/centres/arttherapy.htm

She has a particular interest in parent child attachments and health recovery….just the kind of support I need in my job!

We also met Miriam Busby, another Graduate of Whitecliffe, Auckland, and Aurelie Meslin, an Art Therapist trained in New York, who also works with children in health settings. Saskia Cameron, who trained as an art therapist in Europe also attended a couple of days later and shared with us her own journey into art therapy. As the week drew to a close I started to prepare for the Child Cancer Foundation family conference where I was to deliver a key note presentation.  Everything was ready to go but for one thing… I lost my voice! As the conference spilled into June I’ll wait until next months update to fill you in with the details….Stay tuned!

May 2005 – Debbie Fewtrell

Published by Dr. Debbie Fewtrell on May 20, 2005 in Diary Updates. 0 Comments

Following 10 intensive days in Sydney it would have been rather nice to spend some time at home returning to normality – no such luck! Five days later, off the whole family trundled to the other side of the globe. My mother-in-law has unfortunately been diagnosed terminally ill and family affairs were in need of sorting. The beauty of my role with the World of Difference program is that I could, if necessary, transport myself to Mars and still do most of my job as long as I had power, my trusty laptop and a phone socket!

From my UK office the bonus was of course being able to network with UK practitioners. The highlight was talking with Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride who, having recovered her own learning disabled child, now practices and lectures internationally. She has recently written a very interesting and informative book “Gut and Psychology Syndrome” see www.medinform.co.uk Whilst on the topic of the internet I’ve recently discovered a couple of valuable resources. You can view for free all of the lectures from the recent Boston DAN (Defeat Autism Now) conference at www.DANWebcast.com. The DAN group of doctors are at the forefront of biomedical research for treating autism.  I’m really excited to be attending the next DAN training in USA later this year.

The Foundation for Autism Information and Research at www.autismmedia.org also provides a worthwhile collection of free videos.

My next major goal is to sit the Fellowship exam for the Australasian College of Nutritional and Environmental Medicine in Queenstown this August. I have another 5 weeks of intensive study ahead of me then after repeating the primary course I will sit the exam. I first attended the primary course in August 1997 and became totally inspired with the philosophy of treating the cause of disease with an individualised program using nutrients, diet and natural medicines. I now practice integrated medicine which combines the best of orthodox, nutritional and complementary medicine. Taking the fellowship exam should ensure I have a thorough sound grounding in all aspects of nutritional and environmental medicine which will help my work with autistic children enormously.