Every month I feel like a stuck record, I say the same thing – where does the time go – and July was no exception. Most of the month was taken up with “Band Together” our red wristband campaign. This seems to have captured the imagination of the youth in New Zealand and our bands have been flying out the doors. ½ way through the month we were able to issue a press release that we had sold over 20,000 bands.
Bands were spotted on celebs, on trademe and in newspapers on the general public.
Some of the month was also spent getting ready for next months awareness week and I did some PR work with my local Hawkes Bay Branch to help get the word out and prepare the Hawkes Bay public for the week – August 8-12.
The highlight of the month though was on July 29th when Breath4CF took out the supreme award for “Excellence in the use of IT” in the not for profit category at the annual ComputerWorld Awards. Breath4CF won the award for http://www.fundraiseonline.co.nz. This is a system that allows athletes and supporters to build a personal website that is secure and has credit card donation capacity, from which they can fundraise for CF via the internet. The Computerworld Excellence Awards are hugely prestigious within the I.T Industry and will attract Breath4CF and FundraiseOnline some serious high level attention. This latest awards event was attended by over 500 guests, including government ministers and industry leaders. The win also bought a wonderful bonus in that this category was the only one with a “prize”. Breath4CF benefited by $10,000 thanks to sponsorship of the award by Westpac. I guess it just goes to show that you don’t have to be big to foot it with the big boys; fundraiseonline was designed and developed, implemented and tested by one person from a bedroom (turned office) at home. Yah – Go the little guys!
Currently I am also in planning stages for my next research trip which is this November – I hope to go to the USA to do exactly as I did in London but to view the American model of fundraising. The highlight will be the New York Marathon! Yahhhh more on that in a later edition.
Lastly, I said last month I would update you on my book. Random House approached me late last year after I came back from Hawaii to tell my story in a book. The experience of writing has been incredible and to see my “life” so far in 70,000 words is quite humbling but if the truth be known also incredibly scary. The book is called “Going the Distance” and is currently at the printers. I have written it primarily to give people a first hand personal and searingly honest insight into what its like to live with Cystic Fibrosis, what the impact of diagnosis is and how it utterly changes they lives of everyone touched by a person with CF. It covers our own personal story written as a journey, good and bad and the devastating effects it had on us. It does however have a positive side and shows how I managed to claw my way out of the maze of CF to turn it around to make a difference. It may never be a best seller – that’s not the objective, but if there are even a few families out there that are in the same space I once was and this helps them feel that they do have choices in their life still, then the hours of writing will have been worth it. The book is in store NZ wide 21st Oct. Just look for my smiling face on the cover! J
If you see those bucket collectors out there in August – drop a coin in there…
I am thrilled to report to you on how the vodafone foundation new zealand is assisting me to make the “World of Difference” in the Far North. This month I provide an extract of a letter which is the direct result of many weeks of negotiations
“I have a group of skilled investors that would be prepared to invest significant funds into the development of Landcorp land in return for a long term use and lease arrangement. The level of funding would be determined by the amount and quality of the land available but sums in the order of $10M – $20M could be arranged for these purposes”. WOW!!!
There is approximately 40,000 acres of land owned by Maori but under the stewardship including posession of landcorp (A state owned enterprise) formely lands and survey awaiting settlement in the Far North. Landcorp does not pay any dividends to the owners. There are also significant further tracts of underutilized or underdeveloped Maori land surrounding the land corp blocks, which are either in uneconomic parcels, poorly developed or completely undeveloped.
Further there is little and in some instances no financial or infrastructural management capacity to manage these tracts either pre or post settlement. However as part of the process leading up to the repatriation of this land we consider it most important for us to invest in developing these key components, consequently without this the financial advantage would be lost and the productive capacity including enhanced capability of this land is likely to diminish.
Recently we have been in discussion with interested commercial organizations as joint venture farming partners. They bring a wealth of experience and expertise in the development and management of agricultural businesses. As part of this process we have developed a model where large commercial units (such as 1000 cow dairy units MOTHER UNIT) can be supported by the smaller or currently uneconomic Maori land units. In this manner surrounding 20ac – 100ac feeder units can be developed and used for the production of maize, alternative crops, or provide grazing for young stock or dry cows. In essence the consortium will clear and invest in the smaller blocks up to 1,000 acres (FEEDER BLOCKS) within a 50 kilometre radius of the Mother block.
The advantages of this style of system is that the economic benefit is felt over a wide range of people in our community. Employment opportunities arise as a result of the development both on farm and downstream as land currently not providing any financial benefit starts to generate real income for the local community. For this model to work we will require a trial area of developed land. (In this case Landcorp land.) We believe that something in the order of 200-400ha subject to investigation will be sufficient.
In effect this skilled consortium has offered to provide the necessary management of the land, the required capital for the development of the land and increase the skill level of the local population to both manage and operate the land, finally shares will be distributed to landowners and benefiaries which will ensure perpetual sustainability. Kia Ora Vodafone
Unfortunately this month started off with a really disappointing blow – our house was burgled and the kiwi project’s radio tracking gear was taken as well as my beloved digital camera and GPS. I can’t express how angry I was at the invasion of privacy and at the loss of this gear, which was being used to help conserve the kiwi.
However, on a more positive note, I am happy to report that three of our Waitotara kiwi are nesting with our first egg lift scheduled for late August. There will be a collective sigh of relief once our first egg is tucked away safely in an incubator at Rainbow Springs!
We have caught one male bird at our new Operation Nest Egg site however he has been giving us some grief ever since he was caught! The day after he was caught we couldn’t get a signal from his transmitter, and there began ‘the big search’. After two weeks of searching and night listening to see if we could get him to call we have come to the conclusion that he is a juvenile kiwi. Unlike adult birds, juveniles travel long distances each day until they settle down into their own territory. This means that radio tracking from the ground is difficult as signals can only be picked up from so far away!
We will continue catching more birds in August until we have 4 or 5 adult males.
A highlight this month has been helping out at the Bird Rescue Wanganui – Manawatu Trust one day a week. This has been an awesome experience with heaps of hands on work dealing with a whole range of injured native birds – from kea and kiwi to woodpigeons and tui! I am hoping that this practical experience will set me up for when Bushy Park begins to expand its own range of native bird species.
Final predator eradication has begun at Bushy Park with the first aerial poison drop completed. There will be one more drop within the next few weeks to mop up any remaining pests. We then move into the pest-monitoring phase. This involves laying out ‘tracking tunnels’ that the pests run through and leave behind footprints. This gives quite a good indication of how many pests have survived the eradicaiton and where they are located.
Finally this month, we learnt that our funding application to the Bank of New Zealand Kiwi Recovery Trust was successful and we will be receiving our second year of funding from the Trust. This money is used for fieldwork costs such as equipment and bird catching. The Kiwi Recovery group advises the BNZ Trust on funding allocations so receiving this support is a positive endorsement for the Bushy Park kiwi project.
Australasian College of Nutritional and Environmental Medicine Primary course – Queenstown
Being in Queenstown for a bright sunny mid-winter’s week was such a huge treat. Whilst the glistening, snow-capped mountains reflected in the calm waters of the lakes, around one hundred medical practitioners and pharmacists were treated to a series of inspiring and informative lectures.
Professor Ian Brighthope, the college-founder, along with an impressive collection of Australasian speakers offered practical evidence-based teaching in the safe use of natural and nutritional therapies emphasising disease prevention and health optimisation. The core philosophy is to examine the cause of disease rather than just treating the symptoms.
Specialised training program for doctors in Autism Spectrum Disorder- Auckland February 2006
One of my most important goals for the “World of Difference” year is to convene the first NZ biomedical conference for ASD for medical practitioners. The vast majority of NZ ASD children are unable to access a suitably trained doctor. I soon realised that the conference delegates were my ideal hunting ground. Following discussion with the education faculty of the college I had the authorisation that I could convene the conference under the auspices of the college if I could generate enough participants. What an opportunity! I took the bull by the horns and addressed the group explaining to them the satisfaction of working in this area but more importantly the desperate need for more doctors. I obviously struck a chord with sufficient members of the audience to make the proposition viable -a training and education program is planned for February 2006 in Auckland. – I’m thrilled. My vision is becoming reality. Any other doctors interested in attending the workshop please contact sally@acnem.org
The ACNEM Fellowship exam
With the fellowship exam at the end of the course I really had to focus in during the week’s lectures. I had great intentions of revising every night-yeah right! However I couldn’t miss out on the networking opportunities- not to mention the wonderful array of Queenstown eateries, could I? I did burn the midnight oil towards the end of the week. Fear is a wonderful motivator! On Sunday I waded my way through the written exam. Fortunately during the oral exam with Prof Brighthope I managed to steer the majority of the discussion towards the treatment of autism. On home territory I felt relatively comfortable. It’ll be champers tonight with dinner as it has just been confirmed today that I am now a fellow!!!!
You would have to agree that it would be sacrilege to travel the length of the country in the midst of winter and leave without ski-ing. I stayed on and treated myself to a day on the slopes. I must admit I felt rather displaced swinging on the chairlift gazing down on the phenomenal scenery whilst practising my school-girl french with the foreign lady next to me. No work, no kids, exam over! Boy, I could get used to this every now and again!!
