Dr Robbie Francis Watene will be joining the Momenta Board from September. Robbie has 33 years lived experience of disability and has worked in the disability sector for over a decade as a support worker, humanitarian documentarian, researcher, activist, consultant, and advisor.
Currently a Senior Disability Rights Researcher at the Donald Beasley Institute, and is Project Lead for the Disabled Person-Led Monitoring of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Aotearoa New Zealand.
In 2014, Robbie co-founded The Lucy Foundation (TLF), an Aotearoa-based social enterprise that supports disabled people into training and employment in the global coffee industry. TLF's first project is based in Oaxaca, Mexico, where they work with locals with and without disabilities to regenerate the environment while developing a culture of disability rights and inclusivity through the production of coffee beans. Together with their partners, TLF has helped to create what is believed to be the world's first totally disability inclusive value chain of coffee - from farmer (Mexico) to consumer (Aotearoa NZ).