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ECO-ACCESS APRIL NEWSLETTER
ECO-ACCESS UPDATE All of us at Eco-Access would like to congratulate Donald Millwood who was elected as the new chairman of our Board! Don has been a loyal supporter of Eco-Access for many years now and has brought much skill and expertise to the organization. In fact, Don has played a huge role in much of our current success! Don is a manager at Tshikululu Social Investments, an organization that handles the social investment funds of various large corporates. Don, we look forward to your leadership! Then, Anglo Platinum donated three fantastic colour printers to Eco-Access and so a big thanks to them! These will certainly be put to good use. John Peakes is now volunteering on Tuesdays and Thursdays and is currently helping us to get our data base up to date. So, if you need your details changed or if you want us to send this newsletter to a friend, please let us know. John has much experience in the financial and marketing fields and is in South Africa from the UK for some time. Thanks John for embracing Eco-Access as you have! Our Green Schools are going well and Kerryn Bullock from the Tswane University of Technology, who is assisting us at Prinshof School for the Visually Impaired has managed to obtain many animal bones, horns and the like for their nature room from a museum that was closing down. The nature room at Ezibeleni School, an LSEN school for physically disabled learners, is nearly complete and Momentum has provided funding to paint the room. We have also managed to source various pieces of equipment for them including computers, a printer and a photostat machine. Thanks to all of you who have helped us make this happen and particularly to Momentum for taking Ezibeleni under your wing! Together with the staff and learners, we‚ve planted well over a thousand vegetable seedlings over the past few months and they‚re looking wonderful at the moment - huge and healthy spinach plants greet the learners each day! The National Lotteries Distribution Trust Fund is funding four of our Green Schools and the Telkom Foundation one of them. A massive thanks to both organizations for believing in our country, our youth and our environment! We hope you feel proud of what the children and staff have been able to achieve with our motivation and education. ECO-ACCESS TWINNING CAMPS Eco-Access ran two exciting twinning camps during April, both with blind and partially sighted children twinned with sighted children. The first was at the Hottentots Holland Nature Reserve near Grabouw in the Western Cape. We ran the camp in conjunction with Cape Nature and the Western Cape Education Department. Outward Bound did much of the facilitation. Thanks to Trevor Farr, Fadli Wagiet and Georgie and her Outward Bound team respectively. The children were from Athlone School for the Blind, Glendale High from Mitchells Plain and Windermere High from Windermere, outside Cape Town. These areas are in the poverty torn and gang riddled areas of the Cape Flats and some of their stories were very harsh, with one young partially sighted fellow having already spent time in prison for gangsterism! I‚m glad to say that he made a conscious decision to reform some years back! What optimistic, energetic and wonderful youngsters we had the opportunity to interact with. Some of the activities on the camp included raft building, environmental games, some very amusing plays, a talk about the local fynbos vegetation, team building and lots of fun. Please go to our web page at www.eco-access.org <http://www.eco-access.org/> <http://www.eco-access.org/> to see photos of the camp. One of our aims is to see the schools and participants interacting after the camps and into the future. We are excited that commitments have been made for the participants on the twinning camp to climb Table Mountain together in June with the support of teachers, Trevor and Fadli. Good luck guys - we‚ll be following your progress! The second camp was in the Northern Cape on the Witsand Nature Reserve, 200 km west of Kimberley. The camp was run with the support of Retha Stoffberg, a blind person, who is currently working with mentally disabled adults, and Jeanine Jezznitz, the tourism manager at Witsand. Participants included blind children from Re Thlameleng School and sighted children from St Boniface School, both from the Kimberley area. The twinning worked exceptionally well with some solid bonds being formed over the weekend. One of the activities was a Braille Treasure Hunt where twins worked together to find out information about the nature reserve using Braille clues. One of the blind twins, who had read his Braille clue very quickly, was heard saying to his sighted twin, who was writing down what he had just read, „Come on, can‚t you write any faster!‰. They also did a Braille food pyramid which (and excuse the pun) was an eye opener for many. The twins dune surfed down high sand dunes on boards, did a solitaire in the rain and experienced some of the local natural heritage. Thanks to everyone who helped make this camp a very special event. For photos of the camp, please have a look on our web site at www.eco-access.org <http://www.eco-access.org/> <http://www.eco-access.org/> Again, we thank the National Lotteries Distribution Trust Fund most sincerely for your support and funding! You changed lives on these camps! Lotto, you have been amazing! I must say that the children we have met throughout this year on our various programmes give us so much hope for the future. They have shown resilience, determination and intelligence way beyond their years! Bob Dylan once said "I think of heroes as people who understand the degree of responsibility that comes with their freedom". I think many of the South African youth are heroes! Part of our mission at Eco-Access is to create heroes. Thanks to all our funders for allowing us to do that! SOME WONDERFUL PROJECTS WE VISITED IN THE OVERBERG ˆ WESTERN CAPE Julie and I recently spent some time in the little town of Stanford, not far from Hermanus in the Western Cape. It is the most stunning place with mountains, a large river, the sea close by and with the natural vegetation being predominantly fynbos. Fynbos is so rich and diverse that it forms one of the world‚s six floral kingdoms! While we were there, we had the privilege of visiting various environmental and social projects which all inspired us. I could write entire articles on each one of them, but instead, I‚ll summarize them and hopefully this will inspire you as well. a. BirdLife South Africa ˆ Overberg Region: We met with Anton Odendaal, a psychology professor who moved to Hermanus a few years ago and started a branch of BirdLife SA in the area. He has an absolute passion for birds and conservation. They host regular talks and have developed a series of pamphlets depicting the birds of the region, all of which are sponsored by local business. What impressed us most though is a beach project they have initiated. People of all ages, creeds and cultures choose a stretch of beach which they then monitor. There is an elderly person who has about 5 metres of beach and others have over 400 metres, depending on their physical ability, time, etc. It is then their responsibility to collect litter on their stretch of beach and identify and count it. Litter often kills birds which become entangled in it! There have been many interesting discoveries and recently, for example, they have found a huge increase in the number of plastic ties which investigation has shown is the new way crayfish catchers are tying bait onto nets. Now, education will ensue to resolve this. All statistics are sent to researchers in Cape Town. Tides in the area are being studied and related back to the litter found and calculated - so, the beach is being kept clean, birds are being saved, the community is involved, conservation is happening in a pragmatic way and practical answers are being found! Quite an amazing project! b. Flower Valley Farm: The export of Fynbos flower arrangements overseas is a huge industry and forms one of the largest land uses in the region. This NPO has developed an extensive education programme where farmers and farm workers are taught how to harvest flowers in a sustainable way. This involves learning about plants which are endangered whilst farm school children and teachers learn about Fynbos in their areas. Environmental projects are run at schools. There is a little school on their property which is run totally on environmentally friendly principles and WOW it was a huge inspiration seeing the school in action! c. Food For Thought: Residents of Stanford have formed this NPO to assist in the local squatter camp and low cost housing area close to the town. People transport children to town to see doctors or to register a baby‚s birth; they collect educational toys and medical equipment and they have collected enough money to build a small school and pay a teacher‚s salary! A few years back, two small children were found on the town‚s rubbish dump and members of the organization have found them a foster mom and home and assist in their upbringing! Just some concerned people who are changing lives and building a better community. One of the sayings spray painted onto the bus shelter near the squatter camp says „Thanks to the residents of Stanford because the Government has forgotten us‰. d. Wortelgat Farm: This is a Christian venue and has the most fantastic facilities and activities for groups. School, religious and corporate groups visit the farm and participate in various environmental and team building activities. What impressed us most though is their passion for the venue! Some of the facilities are accessible to wheelchair users, one has a perspex section to the roof so that learners can see the stars from inside their accommodation. All the hooks for hanging clothes, towels etc are made from sticks and small branches collected in the area. It is one of the nicest venues we‚ve seen! The reason for me telling you about these excellent projects is because they are all impacting and all of them depend on the passion of a few people to make them work. Each one has many more facets than I‚ve mentioned and my hope is that you may be inspired to do something to change someone‚s life or make our world a better place. DISABILITY RADIO AND TV SHOW As many of our readers will know, Doug Anderson presents a show about people with disabilities on Radio Today and Islam TV. He is looking for guests for the shows and so if you have any interesting stories related to disability, please do be in touch with him. It is great exposure and also important for others in the field and general society to know what you‚re doing. Here is an extract from an E-mail from Doug: „I record my TV talk show on Tuesday mornings in Johannesburg City Centre, from around 09:30 I record my radio talk show on Wednesdays in Rosebank, Johannesburg, from 11:30 Anyone interested in the exposure, please contact me on 083 285 8376 or doug@snakesalive.co.za‰ HAPPY BIRTHDAY A very special Happy Birthday to all our friends who have birthdays in April! We wish you love, happiness and a wonderful year ahead! Big hugs to Jeannie Roberts, Malcolm Drummond, Chris Patton, Tim Steenhoff, Lauren Wilson, Jane Goodall, Derrick Peete, Phyllis Wolff, Gail Roberts, Jo Roff and John Butler! THOUGHT FOR THE MONTH Julie and I have been involved in a building project over the past few months. It involved painting, putting in some cupboards and doing some maintenance work. We also had to replace an oven and stove that was stolen while all this took place. Originally, the contractor, whom we‚d sourced through a paint chain shop, said that he would have everything finished by the end of January. Because of the rain and a myriad of other „reasons‰, he postponed the finishing date to the end of February. With hindsight and not surprisingly, he didn‚t pitch and the job remained unfinished. With the usual excuses, he then promised he‚d have everything finished before we went on leave. All materials had been paid for and much of the labour as well. Many phone calls later Mr Contractor had hardly visited the site and wasn‚t finished by the time we left. Again, he promised to have it finished by the end of March and the letting agent was given the go ahead to rent the house out as of 1 April. Early in February when the stove was stolen, he mentioned that he could get one for a good price and that he‚d fit it when the tenants moved in. To cut a long story short, the 31 March came and went with no sign of Mr Contractor! The tenants moved in and attempts by the letting agent to appease them only half worked and they considered suing! In the meantime, Mr Contractor delivered an oven and stove, which four people said appeared to be second hand! Four months of rent was lost on the house as well and the house still isn‚t finished! All in all, it‚s turned into a rather unpleasant situation. In addition, we returned from leave to find that our phone wasn‚t working. I also have an ear infection, my kidney dialysis catheters are playing up, the pile of work is enormous and everyone wants everything by yesterday! Why do things go wrong? Why do people we choose to trust sometimes let us down? As I‚ve mentioned before, I don‚t believe it‚s for a reason. Is it then negligence or bad planning? Is it trying to take short cuts? Is it lack of assertiveness? What exactly is it? These could all be reasons for things not working out, but in the examples above, I don‚t think we could be found guilty on any of them. Sometimes, bad luck just happens. We don‚t deserve it and we‚ve tried our best. What is important though is not what bad luck or horrible thing happens but how we respond to it. Do we fall apart or tackle it head on? Certainly I feel frustrated and these kind of things waste time, energy and money but we have to beat them before they beat us! Each one of us will face challenges, disappointments and frustrations sometime and I have a few suggestions that may assist in making them easier to handle. I‚m sure you may have many additional ideas, but I‚m going to give you my triple „P‰ ideas. The first „P‰ stands for Positivity. The more positively we approach a problem, the greater the chance we‚ll find a solution. All sorts of research has shown that when we are positive, we handle stress better and find more creative ways to solve problems. Also, the more positive we are, the more likely we can create win / win situations, where everybody wins and nobody loses. The second „P‰ is for Persevere. It‚s tough stuff handling life‚s challenges, but never give up. If the problem needs solving, keep going. This doesn‚t mean keep going up the wrong path or barking up the wrong tree but it does mean that we need to keep looking for answers. Sometimes, the greatest way to success is through perseverance! The third „P‰ is for Ponder. Stop and think what and why you landed up in this situation and how you could prevent something similar from happening next time. Don‚t beat yourself up because something has gone wrong but deal with it and then learn the lessons you can from the experience. One of the most valuable things about going through difficult times are the lessons you can learn, but it‚s up to you to learn them. God can‚t teach them, friends can‚t teach them - only you can choose to learn and grow from any situation! So, my thought for this month is that you tackle your challenges head on. Don‚t beat around the bush and don‚t get despondent. Be Positive, Persevere and Ponder and learn whatever you can from your challenges that will build you and make you stronger. Learn so that you can prevent them happening again! Have a great May and my sincere hope for you is that bad things will stay away! ECO-ACCESS WISHLIST If you have any of these items that you could donate or if you have contacts who could, we‚d really appreciate your assistance If need be, we would write an appropriate proposal. All of these items would greatly enhance what we are already doing! .
We must thank all of you who have previously responded to our wish lists! You touch lives through your generosity! IN CONCLUSION A huge thanks to everyone who has been involved in all that we do! Your support means so much to us and through it, we can change lives! Please do visit our web page at www.eco-access.org <http://www.eco-access.org/> <http://www.eco-access.org/> to see all that is new and particularly to see photos of our most recent camps. Thanks also to all our Corporate and Trust funders for your support! Thanks to the Anglo American Chairman's Fund, AngloGold Ashanti Fund, Momentum Fund, Nampak, National Lotteries Distribution Trust Fund, Nestle (SA), Planet Hospitality and Travel Services, Simmonds-Hampton Trust, Telkom Foundation and Xstrata (SA) for supporting our programmes. We wish you a fabulous May, filled with awe and wonder! With love and hugs Rob, Julie, George, Dan, Scott, Silas and Custan. Also from our Board ˆ Don, Nikkie, Khanya, Ntombi and Chris! To unsubscribe, please return this email with unsubscribe in the subject line. TO CONTACT US ECO-ACCESS: PO Box 1377 Roosevelt Park 2129 Tel: (011) 4773676 Fax: (011) 4773675 E-mail: info@eco-access.org Web Page:www.eco-access.org
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