MISSION Eco-Access exists to facilitate the inclusion of all people, particularly those with disabilities, into the natural environment and society. | |
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Meet Rob Filmer, Founder and Honourary Life President of Eco-Access
As a diabetic from birth, the possibility of going blind always loomed large for Rob Filmer, but he never imagined that he would lose both his eyes within eighteen months. He was only 24-years-old when he had to learn to walk with a white stick.
Being a nature conservationist, the loss of a sense that has been so fundamental to his appreciation of the environment, birds in particular, was an exceptionally cruel blow.
Together with wife Julie, Rob started Eco-Access in 1994. 'We realised there was a great need to make our natural environment more accessible to disabled people and to get people to meet each other,' he says.
Eco-Access
The work of Eco-Access has contributed, among other things, to the creation
of fit-for-purpose hides from which people in wheelchairs can watch birds,
to Braille information in natural spaces and to the opening up of national
parks for guide dogs. It also provides information to those who host disabled
people for a weekend.
All these achievements can be traced back to the dark time when Rob Filmer arrived at Bourke’s Luck Potholes and found solace in terrain guard, Elias Malibe’s presence. Perhaps that is where the idea of twinning originated? Malibe would take Rob Filmer around when the office became too claustrophobic. 'He played a huge role in my life,' recalls Rob Filmer.
After
Malibe, Julie Filmer took over as Rob Filmer’s 'twin'. He has never
seen his feisty wife. They met when he was already blind and just as his
body reeled into kidney failure. She was the one who rushed him to hospital
for treatment.
Today he has to spend 5 to 8 hours on a dialysis machine, three days a week to do what his kidneys can no longer do - cleanse his body of toxins. As he writes and does research against the backdrop of the droning machine, Julie lobbies for funding and makes things happen.
Rob is the Honorary Life President of Eco-Access and Julie
is the Executive Director. Together they make a formidable team.
[Text by Cornia Pretorius]
Click
here to support Rob and Julie's dream of making our natural environment
more accessible to disabled people
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"Recently, a child on a camp asked me why some people have disabilities. It reminded me of the saying (and I’m not sure who it’s from) 'Don’t seek answers, live the question!' Why do bad things happen to good people? Why does a new born baby
have HIV or get born disabled? Why do loving relationships break
down? Why do loved ones die? So, if you’re strong, healthy and talented, go out and use those gifts. And if you’re disabled, dammit, find what you’re good at and use that as well! But for all of us, 'Don’t seek answers, live the question!'" |
