Robbie Francis

ROBBIE FRANCIS

"When Passion Meets Purpose"

Dr. Robbie Francis Watene is a leading disability rights activist from Aotearoa New Zealand.

Robbie is co-founder and director of The Lucy Foundation (TLF), an international social enterprise which promotes inclusion, access and diversity within the global coffee industry, ensuring disabled coffee producers receive a fair wage. Through the foundation – which is named in honour of Robbie’s prosthetic leg, ‘Lucy Leg’ – she is transforming the global coffee industry through inclusive, ethical and environmentally regenerative trade. Robbie is also New Zealand’s senior researcher monitoring the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities in her country.

In 2018, Robbie obtained her doctorate in Peace and Conflict Studies, where she studied inclusive and accessible peace building and the experience of Colombian and Venezuelan refugees with disabilities in Ecuador. She has been a senior advisor and academic to several renowned institutions including the Attitude Charitable Trust, the University of Otago and the Donald Beasley Institute.

Through her advocacy work Dr. Robbie Francis Watene has not only focused on the rights of people with disabilities but also on conflict resolution and the rights of marginalised people.

https://www.thelucyfoundation.com/