Within the context of the natural environment, ECO-ACCESS exists to build the self-esteem of disabled children and to ultimately facilitate the inclusion of all people into our Southern African Society and the natural environment.
Executive Summary
Eco-Access works with disabled and non-disabled children within the context of the natural environment and so all of its programmes are carried out using environmental education as the foundation. As, say for example, a group of blind and sighted children are touching wild animals or going on nature walks, so they are learning about each other and friendships develop.
The Eco-Access Twinning Empowerment Project consists of four main programmes i.e. discovery Outings, Twinning Camps, Diversity Challenges and Eco-Schools. The project facilitates the development of friendships and the breaking down of the inherent fears often found between disabled and non-disabled people. The project aims to alleviate past social exclusion and the lack of environmental access and skills that South African disabled people have faced. The outcome of this project is respect for one’s self, others and the environment.
Eco-Access is a registered non-profit organization and is also registered as a “Proudly South African” organization.
You may or may not remember that Eco-Access is currently working in 5 Gauteng based Special Needs Schools running various environmental projects. The schools are Zimeleni School for Intellectually Disabled Learners in Katlehong; Ezibeleni School for Physically Disabled Learners in Katlehong; Sibonile School for Blind and Partially Sighted Learners in Kliprivier; Prinshof School for Blind and Partially Sighted Learners in Tshwane and Filadelfia Secondary School for learners with various disabilities in Soshanguve.
13/10/2006
Busy September
September has been a busy month for us all! We ran three Diversity Challenges, one with physically disabled children and corporate executives at the Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens, one at the Pretoria Botanical Gardens with Deaf children and corporate executives and one at Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve with nature conservation students and children with different disabilities! Miss Earth joined us on the Pretoria Challenge and it was special to have her with us!
13/10/2006
Eco-Access is Here to Help
As many of you will know, Eco-Access has been running an e-mail campaign to raise funds to purchase two bakkies. In the campaign, we sent out e-mails requesting people to donate to the campaign and also to send on the email to their address lists. We had a fantastic response and raised over R30 000 from individuals who donated predominantly on line through our web page at www.eco-access.org. Thank you very much each and every one of you who made a donation and who forwarded our request on! We so appreciate your support and our work is going to be much easier because of the bakkies!
13/10/2006
Isn't Summer Wonderful!
Isn’t the summer wonderful! All the new leaves on the trees, the flowers, the sunshine and the rain! Eco-Access was privileged to receive a Harambe award for our work with employee volunteers! As you’ll possibly know, we’ve done a lot of work with groups of volunteers from Momentum and they’ve done some wonderful projects in our Green Schools. The awards have been initiated by SA: The Good News, Charities Aid Foundation SA (CAFSA) and FNB in order to raise the profile of employee volunteering.
13/09/2006
Eco-Access Activities
We hope you’ve had a wonderful August with plenty of opportunities to be kind! Thanks to all of you who have been part of Eco-Access changing lives and our planet! September is a very special month with Arbor celebrations, Deaf Awareness Week, Spring Day and Eco-Access’s twelfth birthday! Thanks to all of you who have helped us make our twelve years the success and fun that it’s been! September is set to be an exciting month for us with a number of our renowned Diversity Challenges, Arbor Day celebrations at Special Needs schools and the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry has requested that our one arbor event be turned into a regional arbor day celebration with their directors attending!
13/09/2006
Thought for the Month
Early in August, I was diagnosed with a kind of heart failure! I’ve been feeling off colour for a while, struggling to breathe, getting very tired and getting chest pain after I eat. Tests show that I have something called Hypertrophic Obstructive Cardiomyopathy (HOCM) – now close your eyes and say that! It is something that can be managed, but it’s scary all the same! And, with my diabetes, kidney failure and other complications, it got me thinking about the reality of … well I guess that I might not be around forever!
07/07/2006
Discovery outings
Eco-Access ran three Discovery Outings with children who are intellectually and / or physically disabled. The first Outing was on the 7th June, with Boitshoko Special School and Ipeleng Primary School from Khuma Township outside Klerksdorp. The second one was on the 8th June with Janie Schneider School for intellectually disabled children from Klerksdorp and both of these outings were held at the Faan Meintjies Nature Reserve. On the 9th June, we had Tshupane Primary School and Ikalafeng Special Schoolfrom Ikalafeng Township in Potchefstroom attending a twinning Discovery Outing at the Potchefstroom Dam Nature Reserve.
07/07/2006
Exciting Eco-Access News
BirdLife SA held their annual Owl Awards during June. Julie and I were privileged to attend.
07/07/2006
Visually disabled kids climb Table Mountain
A significant follow-up event took place this month after our Eco-Access Twinning Camp in the Hottentots Holland Mountains during early April 2006. On the 16 June, the thirtieth commemoration of the Soweto student uprisings, thirty learners, including twelve who are partially sighted, as well as eight adults climbed Table Mountain! Most had never been on the summit before. The experience of interacting within the natural environment was enhanced by the superb weather over the two days.
07/07/2006
World Environment Day celebrated at Johannesburg Zoo
On the 2nd June, Eco-Access participated in a World Environment Day Celebration at Johannesburg Zoo. We spent the morning running twinning activities with the United Church School, an inner city mainstream school, Forest Town School which caters for children with cerebral palsy and Sizwile School for children who are Deaf.
02/06/2006
Eco-Access Outing
This is the second year that we have organised a twinning outing with the female students of one of the Pretoria University hostels, Nerina House. We used the National Botanical Gardens, east of Pretoria, as the venue. In arranging the outing we had wonderful support from the Environmental Education unit of the Botanical Gardens, as well as those officers in charge of the entrance.
06/04/2006
Twinning Camps
March has been a busy month with our Eco-Access provincial twinning camps! We have run one in KwaZulu Natal, one in Limpopo, one in the Free State and we will run one in early April in the Western Cape!
17/03/2006
Eco-Access Leadership Camo - Lapalala
On the very last weekend of January, Eco-Access hosted a leadership camp for Deaf and hearing children at Lapalala Wilderness in the Limpopo province!
25/10/2004
Knowing without seeing
Eco-Access, an environmental / social education organization, is all about changing lives and building a better tomorrow for our Rainbow Nation! Through bringing disabled and non-disabled children (such as children who are blind and sighted, deaf and hearing or mobility impaired and walking) together on environmental education bush camps, fears are broken and friendships developed. The exciting thing is that through this twinning process, friendships are also developed across racial, cultural and religious lines. The outcomes are miraculous!
Report back
13/04/2007
Wed like to thank you for seeing opportunity where so many people would see only disability!
All of us at Eco-Access are so excited to receive your very generous donation! It was such wonderful news receiving the notification from GreaterGood SA.
08/03/2007
Thanks from the Eco-Access Team and all the kids who have used the spades!
Eco-Access was very privileged to receive a donation through the Greater Good website to purchase spades for our Green School programme!
14/08/2006
Kealeboga Thank You Siyabonga
A Huge thanks from all of us at Eco-Access to the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry for their generous donation towards our Arbour project. In the project, we will be planting literally hundreds of trees at Special Needs Schools and teaching the children as much as we can about trees and our beautiful planet. We will also be involved in a series of arbour day functions in September.
On behalf of all the participants, Eco-Access would like to sincerely thank the AngloGold Ashanti Fund for changing the lives of these children!
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