Strong Voices

New Zealand families are celebrating the release of the first drug to treat the severe neurological condition Rett syndrome and wondering if they will see it here.

‍

The new Chair of the IHC Member Council, Lynne Renouf, comes with 45 years’ experience as an activist.

‍

Warren Erickson is a beef and sheep farmer from Gore who hasn’t done a lot of bike riding since he left school. That’s about to change.

‍

Out of challenges can come great opportunities and that is certainly the case with IHC Media.

IHC Media is an online platform launched in 2022 with content created for and by people with intellectual disabilities.

The families who make up the New Zealand Williams Syndrome Association met for their summer camp in Whanganui in January – and there was a lot to catch up on.

‍

When Manaakiao was diagnosed with Williams syndrome at the age of four, his parents Jamie-Leigh and Puke Timoti asked what the Māori term for Williams syndrome was.

‍

An accident 20 years ago on a gravel road put an end to Duane Harrington’s forestry work.

Duane was coming home from working on a forestry block just outside Palmerston, north of Dunedin, when the vehicle he was in went out of control. Surgeons had to insert a metal rod into his badly broken leg.

‍

The Ministry of Education has launched new rules and guidelines to help schools understand more about student distress and minimise the use of physical restraint. The guidelines also aim to eliminate the use of unjustified restraint.

‍

The hard work is much more satisfying since a group of Christchurch IDEA Services volunteers joined the Student Volunteer Army.

‍

Napier’s much-photographed Pania of the Reef was attracting attention from a group of people with cameras. But this time they weren’t tourists.

‍