NEWS BRIEFS
BUILDING BRIDGES Following the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, the French government set up the New Zealand France Friendship Fund in 1991 to strengthen ties between the countries (translation: to say sorry). The Friendship Fund has since provided $5 million in grants to New Zealand, French and French-Pacific projects. The fund recently gave $300,000 to the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship (which sends a New Zealand writer to France annually). The Friendship Fund is now winding up as all the money’s been spent (and we’re all friends again).
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B R E AT H E E A SY
Professor James Renwick has won the 2018 Prime Minister’s Science Communication Prize. The climate scientist and head of Victoria University’s School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences won the $100,000 prize for his ‘outstanding’ communication about the science behind our changing climate and how it will affect the future. He has been involved in more than 100 public presentations, 200 media interviews, and numerous conferences. Judges described him as communicating with warmth, humour, and positivity, while being clear about the seriousness of the issue.
A new approach has reduced the average healing time of venous leg ulcers to 24 weeks from 33 weeks in 2016. ‘Leg ulceration can be a debilitating and very painful condition that can be complex and difficult to treat,’ says nurse specialist Natalie Scott. The new model includes early assessment and intervention, better educating patients and nurses, and having a team of specialist nurses working in advanced wound care in the Wellington, Kenepuru and Kapiti Community Health Service. Natalie says Maori and Pasifika patients tend to develop leg ulcers earlier than European patients, ‘which needs further investigation.’
All Wellington City beaches will be smokefree next summer. Last month Wellington city councillors added the city’s beaches and the Grey Street pedestrian area to the Capital’s smokefree areas. Areas already smokefree in Wellington City are playgrounds, skate parks, sports fields, bus stops, Waitangi, Midland and Truby King parks, the Botanic Garden, Otari-Wilton’s Bush, Bolton Street Cemetery, Te Ngākau Civic Square, the Zoo and Zealandia, and the entrances to all Council buildings including libraries and swimming pools.