Visit by Rev Stephens of IGL

Yesterday we had the pleasure of meeting up with Rev. Samuel D. Stephens and his daughter Becky from the Indian Gospel League (IGL). They were visiting Sydney for a family wedding and took the time to come out to Parramatta to meet us. We had an enjoyable lunch hearing more about the work that the Indian Gospel League is doing in southern India. It is encouraging to hear of the progress being made to improve the lives of the disadvantage. It was also heartening to be told that most of the villages devastated by the 2004 tsunami have rebuilt their communities and in doing so had improved housing and related infrastructure.

ORAF has been contributing to IGL’s projects since 1999 and we are currently contributing funds to the Education and Economic Development Project which has just started this year.

Annual Review of Development Effectiveness 2008

The Annual Review of Development Effectiveness 2008 - scaling up in a deteriorating global environment was prepared by AusAID’s Office of Development Effectiveness and tabled in Parliament on 10 August, 2009.

Annually reviewing development effectiveness is a core element of the Government’s commitment to increase aid effectiveness and improve the transparency and accountability of the Australian aid program.

This Review considers how well the program is placed to maintain effectiveness in the face of the twin challenges of scaling up and the global recession, finding that the aid program is well managed and achieving a wide range of results.

The review notes that Australia is changing the way it manages and delivers aid, though the pace of reform needs to be maintained. Areas for attention include strengthening approaches to policy dialogue, moving more consistently toward program based approaches, and developing approaches to risk management that are better suited to these newer ways of working.

The program also needs to provide more predictable and focused support, and ensure that scaling up is based on larger activities, rather than a larger number of activities.
To meet the challenges of scaling up effectively in a challenging global environment, three areas for action are identified:

• ensuring the aid program protects gains in poverty reduction – Australia is well placed to play a leadership role in helping our developing country neighbours deal with the impacts of the global recession.
• updating the aid program’s operational framework to embed effectiveness principles and provide a more systematic approach to the way aid is delivered, and
• redefining engagement with civil society, recognizing the role that civil society can play in delivering important basic services, increasing government accountability and making systems work better for the poor.

To download the full document please visit http://www.ode.ausaid.gov.au/publications/pdf/arde_report-2008.pdf

Kenya - Korogocho Slum Maternity Clinic

ORAF is supporting the establishment of a maternity clinic in Korogocho in Nairobi. The project began in 2005 and is now near the completion stage.

Joe Radkovic, the CMS missionary who is managing the project, reported in June “that Korogocho clinic itself is going very well. Patient numbers at the outpatients side has gone past 400 per week. We will have to put on another nurse to help with the increase – a good problem. The maternity continues to deliver 2 to 3 a day. One lady due to deliver with us had her baby at home instead and bled to death. It is hard to know what we can do to avoid such things. Hopefully our fees didn’t put her off. The staff have been on a one day retreat, which they loved. Good food, teaching, activities and fun. It was a great day, and needs to become regular.

The maternity is also going well. When a baby gets stuck and is reluctant to come out, it is not always necessary to refer the Mum for a caesarean operation. We can use a suction cup on the baby’s head to pull it out. This is gentler than forceps, and safer, and certainly beats transfer to Pumwani for a caesar. Until now it has been me racing in at night or whenever to save the day. As good as that makes me feel, it is better if I can train the nurses up to do this procedure themselves. The midwives have seen me do it, and I have walked them through it, but none have fully delivered a baby by vacuum extraction (as it is called) themselves. Last week one of the midwives – Njoroge – rang me to come in to pull a baby out. But with me at home only giving instructions and encouragement over the phone he successfully got the baby out himself by vacuum extraction. Njoroge was so pleased with himself, as he should be, and this has encouraged the other midwives that they too can do this themselves.”

Update on Fire Emergency in Kasampur, Northern India

In April this year one of our India Partners, Herbertpur Christian Hospital, contacted us asking for emergency assistance. Kasampur, a local village, had been destroyed by fire. Kasampur had a population of approximately 6,000 and in just over one hour 420 dwellings were destroyed, 4 people killed and 2,300 people left destitute.

ORAF sent A$30,000 to provide for emergency aid including for medicines, food, shelter as well as to help the community to re-establish their lives.

We have recently received the following update on how the people of Kasampur are coping after the tragic incident:

“It is said that there is no disaster that can’t become a blessing and no blessing that can’t become a disaster.

Looking back at the last 2 months since the fire at Kasampur, we have become more and more aware of the truth of this observation.

The communities, including the Herbertpur Christian Hospital community, helped provide clothes, utensils and grains. A disaster committee was formed at the village level and along with the Panchayat, they took over the responsibility of the community kitchen and the distribution of the relief supplies. In fact, so many supplies came in that the villagers were able to stock up grains for the next six months. The government involvement has been in giving Rs. 2000/- per family.

Need assessment was done by the project and they identified the families and school children requiring immediate intervention. The disaster committee and the Panchayat helped finalize 165 children out of the list prepared by the project staff who needed school uniforms and supplies. The orders for uniforms and carpets have been placed. The children get back to school in July 2009.

Like the quote says a blessing has the potential of becoming a disaster. We learned that lesson as well, as we looked at rebuilding homes. While we have the funds to rebuild, there were big issues among the villagers in trying to decide who needed help. It has taken this long, but finally the disaster committee and the Panchayat decided on a list of 100 families. Work has started on the structure of 50 of the houses. Despite their differences, it has been encouraging, however, to see that the structure and labor has been volunteered by the villagers themselves.

Our immediate future plans include completion of the roofs of the houses, training of teachers in identifying and helping children with stress reactions and planting of trees which will wait till after the rainy season is over.

So, while these are the obvious blessings that followed the disaster, we also had the privilege of having so many people who reminded us again about the strength of fellowship by choosing to keep in touch, pray and give generously. We write this with the awareness that a mere thank you does not cover the overwhelming support we have received.”

12,000 Mothers Day health cards delivered to Minister for Foreign Affairs

Micah Challenge recently reported that on 17-18 June 2009 Micah Challenge coalition representatives met with politicians in Canberra to bring them up to date on the health campaign. The meetings were very encouraging and our politicians are aware and supportive of the campaign. Some MPs mentioned that they had received visits from campaign supporters in their electorate offices.

More than twelve thousand Mothers Day health cards were delivered to Bob McMullan, who will pass them on to Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Stephen Smith.

The government is planning to send Micah Challenge an official response to the cards.

Micah Challenge - Offering of Letters 09

Micah Challenge is calling Christians all over Australia to pick up their pens to fight poverty. The ‘Offering of Letters’ campaign asks churches and other Christian groups to prayerfully write a letter to the Prime Minister calling for generosity and justice for 1.2 billion people who live in extreme poverty. The letters will be delivered to Mr. Rudd during the Micah Challenge national gathering, ‘Voices for Justice’, in September.

Last year, more than 5000 letters were delivered to Parliament House, sending our government a clear message that Christians in Australia care about justice. Micah Challenge recently received a response from the office of Mr. Rudd, thanking letter writers for “bringing this matter to the Prime Minister’s attention.”

As our world groans under the weight of a financial crisis, we must remember that it is the poorest of the poor who will be most impacted. The World Bank estimates that more than 300 thousand more children will die each year from poverty related causes, if the global economic crisis continues.

This year, Micah Challenge is again encouraging Christians to write to Mr. Rudd urging him to turn his words of support for the MDGs into tangible action. It will take about 15 minutes to construct a handwritten letter asking our government to remember Australia’s commitment to the global poor.

For more information, including the Offering of Letters kits please visit www.micahchallenge.org.au/offering-of-letters.

Philippines - Women Transformation & Empowerment Project

ORAF is pleased to announce that it has recently agreed to fund this three year project.

The Women's Transformation & Empowerment Program aims to facilitate emotional, mental, social, economic and spiritual transformation of women survivors of prostitution through relevant training and leadership development.

Prostitution in the Philippines is a widespread problem with social, cultural, and economic implications. Estimates twenty years ago put the number of women in the Philippines involved in prostitution at 500,000. That number has certainly multiplied in the past two decades, particularly as the national economy continues to struggle. Many other Filipino women are trafficked outside of the country to other locations in Asia and beyond where they are sexually exploited in the “entertainment industry”, and many Filipino girls and women are being exploited through the internet. Women and girls are deceived, trafficked, and caught in the web of prostitution due to a variety of interrelated “push” and “pull” factors, prominent among them being poverty, poor educational attainment, lack of employment opportunities, and previous experiences of abuse.

This is one of four major complementary programs of Samaritana (ORAF’s local partner) in its mission to build, model, and empower communities that embrace vulnerable women and survivors of prostitution, enabling their transformation.