Since 2010, ChildFund Laos has been implementing projects in Nonghet district, Xieng Khouang province in northern Laos. ChildFund now works in partnership with 27 communities across a range of projects including education, health, livelihoods and child protection.
Community sponsorship is helping to connect our supporters in Australia with the communities they are supporting in Nonghet. As ChildFund Laos` communications manager I get the opportunity to be part of this program. So I was excited to welcome our first ever Community sponsorship visitors to show them how their support is making a real impact in my country.
Bonnie and James (pictured above, right) are a couple from the Southern Highlands in New South Wales, Australia. Bonnie works in childcare and her partner, James, is a plumber, so they both had very interesting questions about our education and water and sanitation work particularly.
My colleagues and I met Bonnie and James in Phonsavanh, the capital of Xieng Khouang province on 18 February. They joined us in a van heading to Nonghet. The weather was warm, but it started to rain and even hailed heavily in the evening. Nonghet is situated in the mountains near the Vietnamese border so around this time of year it can be very cold. Luckily by morning, the day that we planned to visit a village and local school, the weather had improved.
The efforts of Australian aid and development organisations are integral to alleviating poverty in a number of ways. Some important examples include reducing the rates of gender-based violence in the Pacific, enabling more girls and women to access education and employment opportunities, assisting vulnerable communities to cope with the impacts of climate change and disasters, and providing access to vital basic health and education services to give children the strongest possible start to life.
But this work is now under threat, with the Australian Government decimating the aid budget since coming to power. More than $11 billion has been stripped from the aid program in successive cuts announced over the past year. This will see the 2015-16 aid budget slashed by 20 per cent – around $1 billion – the largest single-year cut in history. By 2017, Australian aid will be at the lowest level ever recorded at a mere 0.21 per cent of Gross National Income.
These cuts to the aid budget have been met with strong backlash from the Australian development NGO community because it will dramatically set back efforts to deliver effective aid. NGOs including ChildFund Australia have already had to axe crucial education, health and child protection projects in some of the world’s poorest communities, and more blows will follow this year.
In light of these setbacks, a fresh, innovative and unified response to the budget cuts is needed to increase public support for aid. While the outcry from NGOs has been loud, support for aid in the Australian community appears to be at an all-time low, with the cuts to aid being the most popular saving in the recent budget.
A good step in this direction is the newly launched Australian Aid campaign, an initiative supported by over 50 organisations working to end poverty around the world. Although still in its early days, the campaign strives to shift the debate on aid from what we should be doing to what we already do, highlighting the vital role of Australian aid in our region and beyond, and the massive achievements that have occurred over the past 20 years. Half as many people today are living in extreme poverty than 20 years ago. Half as many young children are dying needlessly each year. Through the contributions we make, Australian aid is part of this success story.
The overarching message of the campaign is that we have much to be proud of about the aid program. But it’s also about reconnecting aid with our national identity. New research has found young Australians overwhelmingly view ˜fairness` as our most important national value (42 per cent), yet one in three feel this iconic Australian characteristic is under threat. Helping children and families wherever they may live is surely the definition of giving everyone a fair go.
Working together, Australian NGOs are in a good position to inspire people and increase understanding of aid. A unified effort will help garner public support and show the Australian Government that Australians are truly proud of the aid program, and consider aid to be a priority in the lead-up to the next election. In turn, this will enable NGOs to keep on doing what they do best: helping children and families overcome poverty and stand on their own two feet.
