Sarah Walters

Kia ora Tatou, Hello to all of us, Last week we introduced Tom Eats and Phil Thorn as new Board Members and promised to introduce you to our third new Board member. Drum roll please as we introduce Sally Britnell… — My name is Sally Britnell. I am a 50-something-year-old woman who doesn’t like to […]

Kia ora Tatou, Hello to all of us, This week I am delighted to let you know we welcome three new members onto our Board: Sally Britnell, Phil Thorn and Tom Eats, all identifying as deafblind/dual sensory impairment. In the coming weeks we will offer biographies for them so you can be really confident of

Kia ora Tatou, Hello to all of us, It was a pleasure on Tuesday to be able to attend the Nelson Deafblind Network lunch combined with a housewarming! It’s a beautiful time of year to be gathering in a courtyard, wherever you are in the motu/country. Some in the photo below chose not to have

Kia ora Tatou, Hello to all of us, Many of you may know now that I have a passion for deafblind access to Arts and Culture. I am delighted this week to bring you snippets from our community, some opportunities, and an invitation to offer of your experiences. We have many artists from within our

Kia ora Tatou, Hello to all of us, Whoop! Whoop! Whoop! How wonderful it was to meet with so many of you from the Kāpiti Coast last Friday! And for those of you in Wellington and Lower Hutt how lovely to reconnect. It’s wonderful that we plan to reconnect in April and I look forward

Kia ora Tatou, Hello to all of us, As Amanda is busy connecting through Peer to Peer support meetings in the Wellington region we bring you a very short update this week. We find it hard to believe that we are almost a month into 2024 and a year on from our last seminar in

Kia ora Tatou, Hello to all of us, Every year I wonder what we can do for Helen Keller Day on 27 June. Mid-winter seems a long way away just now while I nurture lettuce and herbs in the garden, as many of you may also be doing. Here is an opportunity for us all

Kia ora Tatou, Hello to all of us, A warm start, both heart and weather, to you all from the Board, myself, Sarah, and Aimee – your team – here at Deafblind Association NZ Charitable Trust. I think of the New Year as “New Possibilities” and I make the same resolution each year, “This year

Kia ora Tatou, Hello to all of us, Pacific Disability Forum The following message has been received from Co-Chair Latoa, “… on the passing away of Dr Kevin Murfitt who represented WBU Oceania Subregion in past PDF regional conferences and chaired the Pacific DPO Fund successfully in his term. May Kevin’s legacy inspire us to

Kia ora Tatou, Hello to all of us, In February this year, Deafblind Association of New Zealand Charitable Trust submitted an application to the Rehabilitation International Centennial Award. While the award recipients were announced earlier in the year, we have only recently received the physical items, which consist of: A beautiful decorative fabric covered box

Kia ora Tatou, Hello to all of us, So, here we are sliding into the end of year break and still there are so many exciting things to do! Judy is busy organising a Deafblind Hamilton Network gathering before the close of play this year, Phil is coordinating for Lower Hutt/Wellington in January, and Andrea

Kia ora Tatou, Hello to all of us, Firstly I will apologise for not sending you an email last Friday. I was away at the Kāpō Māori 40th Celebration and Conference in Queenstown. While my luggage travelled with me, my JAWS Screen Reading Software packed his bags and went somewhere else! The Conference was wonderful,

Kia ora Tatou, Hello to all of us, This week I am down in Christchurch to be with Resource Teachers of the Deaf (RTD), Resource Teachers Vision (RTV), Advisors on Deaf Children (AoDC), Special School representatives, Deaf Aotearoa, Blind Low Vision NZ, Audiologists, Optometrists and Southern Cochlear Implant Programme (SCIP). The purpose is: To connect

Kia ora Tatou, Hello to all of us, Whoop, whoop, whoop! We launched our Wellington/Lower Hutt/Kāpiti group last Saturday. We had five deafblind, one voluntary tactile interpreter, one voluntary driver/technical advisor, and Jacqui, Deafblind Coordinator Extraordinaire! Phil hosted at the Laura Fergusson Trust and the catering was donated. I learned so very much from all

Note: this message was prepared by Amanda on Rāhoro, Saturday. Kia ora Tatou, Hello to all of us, With apologies this is coming to you a little late this week, however that does not mean I have not been thinking of you all! I’m back in the “Big smoke” of Wellington and looking forward today

Kia ora Tatou, Hello to all of us, I am delighted to let you know that Phil Thorn is hosting a gathering in Lower Hutt next weekend for those in the wider Wellington area. Thank you Phil for taking leadership on this! So far we have eight of us gathering from Wellington, Kapiti Coast, and

Kia ora Tatou, Hello to All of Us, Honouring Brian Peel I came to know Brian after he had retired from his role as Guide Dog Instructor with Blind Low Vision NZ and I had returned from the UK. We would meet along the estuary while I walked Clover and he was walking his little

Kia ora Tatou, Hello to all of us, This week your Board received the resignation of Don McKenzie, CNZM, OBE MNZM and more. Don has dedicated the years since 2017 of his invaluable insight to us as a member of our community and enriching us with his experience. In looking at Don’s bio there is

Kia ora Tatou, Hello to all of us, I start with something this week that says it so much more clearly than I do. Kevin sent this through to us so thank you Kevin. It is so succinct and yet says everything! “I want to leave you one of my favourite quotes about disability from

Kia ora Tatou, Hello to all of us, Most of the time now I don’t think about whether I am deafblind or not – it’s just my normal. Every three years however I have a little smug moment when I am grateful not to be able to see all the larger-than-life faces of election candidates.