Hi! I’m Gemma and I work in the Supporter Relations team at ChildFund Australia, where I am lucky enough to work alongside our inspiring and passionate volunteers in our Sydney office.
I’ve been working in the Supporter Relations team for four years now and am still touched by the number of enquires we get from people saying “I’ve got some free time now and want to volunteer.”
Firstly, that is awesome. To know that there are people out there who are willing to give their free time, work and use their skills alongside us to help us achieve our ultimate goal – a world free from poverty, where children are protected and have the opportunity to reach their full potential.
And in our Sydney office we really couldn’t do the work we do without our courageous and amazing volunteers who never say any task is too hard for them. When they are in the office I feel like we are a team and we really can take on the issues that ChildFund works to address.
Being a Supporter Relations Officer at ChildFund Australia has meant I have been lucky enough to travel overseas to monitor ChildFund’s projects in South America and meet incredible people along the way. However, it is our volunteers that are my inspiration.
They care about the world, they care about equality and fighting poverty. And they show week in and week out that they are committed. I believe commitment is the one thing that motivates us and moves us into action.
I am proud to work alongside our volunteers and continue to be inspired by them every day. Volunteers are the people standing up and changing the world.
To our amazing volunteer team – thank you.
This International Volunteer Day, ChildFund Australia would like to thank our amazing volunteers who make change happen every single day around the world!
Following the launch of the Stop Violence Against Women and Children in Papua New Guinea report last year, ChildFund Australia has continued to support advocacy efforts on the issue of family and sexual violence in PNG, and secured funding to implement a range of programs to prevent violence and support survivors. On 2 December 2014, ChildFund hosted an event at Parliament House in Canberra to encourage further effort, collaboration and investment in initiatives to respond to this issue. ChildFund invited a number of people to speak, including Philma Kelegai from The Leniata Legacy. Her powerful speech moved and inspired us, and we wanted to share it with you in this blog post. Philma’s speech was preceded by a video, produced by human rights photographer and author of Crying Meri, Vlad Sokhin.
On 6 February 2013, Kepari Leniata was stripped naked, brutally tortured, mutilated and burnt alive in a public place, witnessed by an entire village. A wife and mother of two, her hands and feet tied to planks. She was carried unconscious by a mob to a pile of tyres, she was dowsed in kerosene, thrown onto the tyres and burnt alive.
She was only 20.
The chilling story of Leniata’s ordeal sent shockwaves around the world. I opened up the Post-Courier around that time and the front page screamed into my soul. I could not fathom that such a level of brutality was possible in this century, innocent lives destroyed. Little did I know this was not an isolated incident.
Immediately following Kepari’s brutal killing, it was reported that a nurse in Lae was gang-raped in her own home, then a five-year-old was gang-raped in Port Moresby. This was unacceptable. I decided then that it was no longer ok for me to just exist. Enough was enough. People, young and old, were compelled into action.
Together with other centres in PNG and around the world, we organised a Haus Krai. The Haus Krai is a traditional period of mourning for a life lost. We not only mourn that life, we also mourn for the potential and the possibilities that life represented. We were in mourning for the many lives that were lost from such circumstances, including Kepari’s.
We marched through the streets of Brisbane, through Port Moresby, through Washington DC, through Lae and many other centres all around the world as a united voice against this horror.
Cassaundra Rangip, Mona Endehipa and myself, as young women, realised the urgent need to seriously address gender-based violence in PNG. We formed The Leniata Legacy.
The Leniata Legacy is an international non-profit organisation that operates cross-jurisdictionally between Australia and Papua New Guinea, primarily for the emergent cause of gender-based violence in PNG. Conservative research has found that two in three women in Papua New Guinea are survivors of some form of violence whilst 59 per cent are survivors of rape.
The Leniata Legacy is unique in that it is formed, founded and managed by Papua New Guinean women, in both Papua New Guinea and Australia. The Leniata Legacy is the epitome of empowerment. To invest in the Leniata Legacy is to invest directly into Papua New Guinea. Our vision is the ERADICATION of gender inequality and gender-based violence in PNG.
We recognise the complexities of PNG’s socio-economic and law and order challenges, as well as our cultural setbacks, however, we believe this vision can be achieved.
