“Thinking Big, Starting Small”: Creating Change in Simbu with SME

Celebrating Small Business Enterprise in Simbu

It’s International Micro, Small and Medium sized Enterprises Day and we want to celebrate the incredible work our Mercy Works Simbu Project Coordinator, Sr Maryanne Kolkia RSM, does in this area which is changing the lives of individuals and communities through economic empowerment.

Passionate about creating positive change, Sr Maryanne is behind the SME support and training which is seeing individuals prosper and turn their dreams into reality or, as Sr Maryanne puts it; “thinking big, starting small!”

The concept is simple: Mercy Works provides an amount of money to be used as start-up capital by individuals or groups, which is returned after every two weeks, the same money passed on to another, then to another…. We also provide support with logistics, financial material, and seeds as start-up capital, with a clear direction: The primary goal; to make money together and grow money together in achieving bigger and better dreams in life. Work, multiply, keep yours and give back what’s given to you,” says Sr Maryanne of the simple yet effective concept. “Community responsibility remains the calibre and catalyst for real change in regards to improving the quality of life for all.”

Here are just a few examples of how SME is changing lives in PNG:

One 67-year-old woman, living with HIV/AIDS for more than 20-years, engaged in the thirty-kina project in June 2021. When the Mercy Works office was first established in Mingende – she was one of the first 21 individuals involved. After three months she earned a total of PGK1,350 (A$530), enabling her to repay the loan, and release new funding for another individual. The program is helping to realise her personal dreams and goal to build a permanent house for herself.

She also requested to borrow two additional loans totalling PGK650 (A$200), with 30% interest being repaid in three months. Her savings reached PGK4,000 (A$1,560,) making her vision to have a permanent* house built within three years possible (*upgrading materials from bamboo walls and grass matts to brick, wood and cement floors with a galvanised iron roof…and sometimes, this includes an electricity and water connection). She is optimistic, committed, hardworking, and so determined to achieve her goal.


A displaced youth discontinued his education after grade 12 due to financial constraint and family problems.

He began his journey with Mercy Works in Goroka in 2019, where he engaged in the youth program through short-term financial development goal activity, selling manufactured mini goods known as “Table Market”.

He was unsuccessful after three attempts of going back to school. One morning, he came to the Mercy Works office explaining that he would be better off in the village than struggling in town. He requested bulb onion seeds and a bush knife so he could return to his village in Simbu and till the land.

His request was granted, and he started working with his immediate family, doing the gardening. Later, other members in his clan, particularly the youths, joined. A cooperative was formed consisting of forty members working as a group, coordinated, coached and mentored by the youth.

During the period they had 3 harvests, a total of 135 nets of onion bulb, generating PGK9,888 (nearly A$4,000). His clan’s cooperative boosted the interest in nearby villages and clans. As a result, three new interested groups formed, and reported that they would like to partner with Mercy Works.


One youth reached PGK1,000 (nearly A$400) within two months, by becoming engaged in ordering chicks from New Birds company in Lae, then travelling highlands Highway supplying poultry farmers with chicks!

Individuals engaged in financial mobilisation progressed from short-term to medium- term financial development goals that include trade store, poultry project, piggery, and fish farming. 

A man expressed gratitude to Mercy Works for the start-up capital of seedlings & the thirty-kina which enabled him to make enough money to pay for his daughter’s school fees. His success story encouraged others.


We wouldn’t be able to conduct this work without the generous support of The Noel and Carmel O’Brien Family Foundation to whom we are incredibly grateful.

Mung Bean Porridge!

NUTRITIONAL PORRIDGES

Timor-Leste remains one of the poorest nations in the world. Maucatar is a remote mountainous area where there is severe malnutrition and high mortality rates. There is little or no access to water, sanitation, education or infrastructure.

It’s here Mercy Works partners with the Hospitaller Sisters of Mercy to deliver the Maucatar Nutritional Hygiene Project” in Cova Lima in Timor-Leste.

It aims to improve the nutritional status of mothers and young children who attend the maternity clinic and outreach programs in the Maucatar catchment area.

While we provide holistic care to malnourished children and antenatal and postnatal mothers through clinical care, and nutrition through eggs and egg-laying hens, our Health Education and Nutrition program, run by Sr Gilbert Pathrose, is educating villages on how to provide and cook nutritional meals.

Here are some of their recipes which are saving lives!

1. Mung Bean Porridge Mixture

  • 25g mung beans (2 dessert spoons)
  • 10g milk power (2 spoons)
  • 5g maize flour (1 spoon)
  • 10g sugar (1 spoon)
  • 10g oil (1 spoon)
To Prepare:
  • Boil mung beans in water and add the oil until cooked (or for 30 mins)
  • Add sugar, milk power and maize flour and mix well
  • Give to the child twice daily

2. Rice Based (Low Lactose) Milk

  • 85mls Full fat liquid milk or 11g full fat dried milk powder
  • 15g Rice
  • 3.5g pre-cooked vegetable oil
  • 3g sugar
  • 200ml water
  • Blend milk, rice, oil and sugar and then mix water

3. Low Osmolar (cereal based) milk

  • 25g Dried Skim Milk Powder
  • 10g sugar
  • 35g dry cereal flour
  • 30g/35ml vegetable oil
  • 20ml CMV (1/2 red scoop)
  • 1L of boiled water
  • Mix the sugar, oil and CMV to a paste and then slowly add the warm boiled water. Make up to 1 Litre. If available electrically bland or hand whisk. Cook for 4 minutes

4. No-Milk (Lactose Free) diet

  • Whole egg (raw) OR 60g Cooked Chicken
  • 3g rice
  • 4g pre-cooked vegetable oil
  • 3g sugar
  • 200ml water
  • blend together and cook

Finding Peace in Ballarat

A BRAVE HEART AND A BOLD MIND

When Peace Aziawor, 19, arrived in Ballarat in Victoria in 2011 from Togo, West Africa, she was scared, painfully shy and didn’t want to be seen as different.

Peace during the RYLA camp

So worried was she about standing out, she asked to not be removed from the classroom at Phoenix College for her one-on-one sessions  with her Mercy Connect volunteer, Margaret Adams.

It took her a whole year before agreeing to work together with Margaret in the library.

Fast forward five years, and there is little chance Peace does not stand out. In fact, the full-time dentistry nurse studying for her Certificate III is a star soccer player and has just completed the Rotary Youth Leadership Award Program (RYLA) after being nominated by the Rotary Club of Wendouuree Breakfast.

The program is for inspired young adults to unlock their leadership potential, set goals for the future and to challenge themselves personally. Peace says she overcame one of her biggest fears while at the camp.

“RYLA has really taught me what it means to be a leader, not just to a group of people but how to lead yourself on the right path,” says Peace.

“I learned how setting goals is really important and mostly I learnt – and had the courage – to get up and speak in front of a group of people, which is a fear of mine.

“I will be taking that step with me if there ever comes a time I have to speak in public!” She still catches up with her mentor Margaret at least once a month.

Peace and Marg as they appeared on our 2017 Bilum Magazine Cover

“I call if I need help or just to chat about life,” she says. “After just a few minutes of talking to her I realised how great a mentor she already was. She was so helpful.”

Peace credits Margaret with many of her achievements. “Without Margaret in my life, I honestly wouldn’t be where I am today, in my career and just mentally, from helping me with my studies and just being there for me when I needed her.”

Margaret, a semi-retired teacher, says mentoring is a two-way street and that Peace has “enriched” her life.

“She joined us for a big gathering on Boxing Day and a family lunch for Easter.”

Up next, Peace hopes to travel as much as she can “and be happy in my life and my career”.

Her advice for any refugee or asylum seeker students arriving at a new school “would be cliched!” she laughs: “Be Brave, have an open mind and trust it will turn out for the best. Just never give up, to never doubt yourself – even though your mind tells you otherwise.”

Peace was part of our Mercy Connect Ballarat Volunteer Mentoring Program. We are so grateful to the Ballarat Foundation @ballaratfoundation for their ongoing support of Mercy Connect Ballarat.

Their grant provides important resources for our volunteers who provide in-class mentoring support for refugees and asylum seeker students at schools in the region of Ballarat. Thank you!

Photo Captions: (Top Left) Peace Aziawor (Top Right & Bottom Left) Peace on RYLA Camp in Melbourne (Bottom Right) Gitte Lindgaard (President RC of Wendouree Breakfast and MC mentor) Huy Nguyen (Youth Director) Peace Aziawor, Margaret Adams (Mercy Connect mentor) and Clare Bennett (Mercy Connect Ballarat Coordinator)

An Afghan Feast!

It’s Refugee Week and it’s a national celebration. 

But here at Mercy Works, we don’t need a special reason to celebrate our wonderful refugees and asylum seekers.

Earlier this year we celebrated our adult literacy class at Dandenong Library, part of our Mercy Connect Melbourne Program, with an Afghan Feast.

And it all started with a simple note: “I want to throw a party if you do not have a problem with Afghan food!”

All Friday mornings are a happy and busy time at the Adult Literacy Class, our Mercy Connect class run at the Dandenong Library in Melbourne for adult refugees and asylum seekers looking to improve their English. The Program, run with the generous support of donors like The Jack Brockhoff Foundation, recommenced earlier this year.

But one Friday in May was even more exciting, says Sr Mary Lewis, our Mercy Connect Program Coordinator in Melbourne

“It was the first lesson after EID – the Muslim Feast at the conclusion of Ramadan,” explains Sr Mary.

The religious holiday, Eid al-Fitr, is celebrated by Muslims worldwide because it marks the end of the month-long dawn-to-sunset fasting of Ramadan.

“The previous Friday, one of the students presented us with a note asking to throw a party. It was decided that everyone could bring something to share and we could all celebrate. All were happy and agreed.”

But come Friday 4th May and the volunteer tutors were there on time, as always, but no students.

“We wondered if they thought we were going to celebrate at a restaurant or somewhere else!” says Sr Mary.

“But one by one they began to arrive each carrying some delicious food they had prepared that morning. There were Cambodian donuts, Aussie Anzac Biscuits, Afghan Bread in multiple varieties, Spicy Chicken wings and Biryani, Afghani dumplings, sandwiches,  chocolate, cakes and chips to name a few.”

The host of the party disappeared half way through the morning and returned with a shopping trolley laden with beautiful hot food and salads.

“It was a little like the loaves and fishes where everyone was treated to a feast,” says Sr Mary. “There was much sharing and chatter among students and tutors and it was obvious that no one had any problem with Afghan food.  Not much was left over and that was happily shared among all, tutors and students, and taken home to family.

“A happy time was had by all!”

Mercy Works especially wishes to thank The Jack Brockhoff Foundation for their support towards our Mercy Connect Adult Literacy Class at the Dandenong Library.

Cashing in on Cocoa Crop

SOWING SEEDS OF JOY IN PNG

Mari-Mari is the Tok Pisan word for Mercy. It’s also the name of a newly formed voluntary committee named after Mercy Works which hopes to serve the community through sustainable development in Iowara, located in the North Fly district of Western Province in Papua New Guinea.
For this remote and disadvantaged rural population, which lacks basic services like clean water and food, hope and mercy is often all there is.
Steven and villagers transport cocoa seedlings from Kiunga to Iowara on the Fly River

Which is why the latest Cocoa Cash Crop initiative, which began as a tiny bud of an idea by our Mercy Works Project Coordinator in Kiunga, Steven Dude, is generating much excitement.

“People are full of joy when the MW Kiunga team is in their villages…. They feel our presence brings hope and satisfaction,” Steven says via zoom from Kiunga.

With cocoa bean production in PNG reaching 35,000 tonnes in 2021- and it being one of only 23 countries recognised by the International Cocoa Organization for its fine flavour, Steven is promoting cocoa as an alternative cash crop to support families.
Cocoa Seedlings planted in PNG
His goal is to see 800 cocoa farmers in Iowara, each with between 300-500 cocoa trees on a two to three-hectare cocoa plantation, within a few years. So far they have introduced 18 varieties of cocoa buds, created from a clone seed in a mini-nursery, which will be planted every Tuesday and Friday.The buds are ready to be distributed for cultivation, with Steven anticipating 10,000 root stock will be planted.
The aim is to create a whole new economy for the impoverished area which faces many challenges including climate change, geographic limitations and difficulties accessing markets.
“We want to encourage our people’s participation meaningfully to make a positive living in a friendly and peaceful environment,” says Steven. “If people respect themselves and each other and work together to reduce poverty, we can work in partnership towards social prosperity.”
Steven says Mercy Works is helping to empower people to identify resources and strength within themselves, which enables them to sustain their living.
“We provide guidance and technical support to assist people, as they already have the potential but only need the skills and knowledge to transform to a better way to utilise resources within themselves. Here we encourage people to be more self-reliant to meet their daily needs.”
Villagers transport Cocoa seedlings on the river.Stuck in the mud! Pushing cocoa seedlings uphill.
Stuck in the mud! Pushing cocoa bud seedlings uphill! 
Cocoa bud seedlings loaded to be transported to Iowara for planting

 

Peace and prosperity were not always words associated with this region. It is home to over 10,000 West Papuan refugees who fled strife and sought protection in PNG territory in 1984 when the Indonesian military took occupation.

It has been a place of much civil unrest. According to Steven, himself a West Papuan Refugee, people were given land to cultivate and sustain their living.
Cocoa is farmed across the entire of PNG with at least 150,000 families relying on cocoa farming for their livelihood since it was introduced in the 1800s. A cacao tree takes up to three years to produce its first fruit known as a cacao pod.
Once their first pods are produced, farmers can harvest, process, and sell for cash.
*Tok Pisan is the local language in Papua New Guinea.
Read how Steven hopes he can continue Transporting Hope in the Iowara here:

The importance of being “Part of a Pacific family”

Our Mercy Works Board Chair, Joe Zabar​, has written about the importance of giving aid, and being “part of a Pacific family”. He shares his opinion on Australia’s need to step up and give more aid here: 

 

By Joe Zabar

 

Rarely has the issue of Australia’s commitment to aid and development been so critical to a government’s first term agenda.

Australia’s Foreign Minister, Senator Penny Wong has visited the Pacific region twice since being sworn in, demonstrating the intentions of the newly elected Albanese Labor government to strengthen Australia’s relationship with its nearest neighbours. While senior level engagement between the Australian government and its neighbours is essential, so too will be the action the Albanese government takes to help its neighbours address the many well publicised concerns of climate change, regional security, social and economic development.

As a percentage of Gross National Income (GNI), Australia’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) in 2021 was around 0.22%, well short of the UN target of 0.7%. The falloff in Australia’s ODA over the past decade from a high of 0.36% of GNI in 2012, together with an absence of leadership on issues of importance to its neighbours has impacted Australia’s influence in the region.

The previous government’s “Step Up” initiative was unfortunately too little and too late. More critically it had the appearance of desperation, a government realising that its position in the region was under threat. Former Prime Minister, Scott Morrison told journalists in 2019 that the Pacific “Step Up” was part of “refocussing our international efforts on our own region, in our own backyard and making sure we can make the biggest possible difference”.

The problem with that narrative was that it reinforced a perception with our neighbours that our engagement with them occurs when it is in our interest to do so. And clearly this wasn’t missed by Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama who tweeted that “Fiji is not anyone’s backyard — we are a part of a Pacific family” during Penny Wong’s recent visit to the country.

Photo: Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong meets with Henry Puna, the Secretary General of the Pacific Island Forum, on May 26, 2022 in Suva, Fiji. (Pita Simpson/Getty Images)

Prime Minister Bainimarama’s tweet about his nation being part of the Pacific family is instructive as to how we must see and use Australia’s $4.5b aid budget. ODA, often viewed as soft diplomacy, is an important feature of international relations. However, to think of ODA as merely a financially-based relational transaction is to misunderstand its true value and purpose.

ODA signals our values and priorities. And for governments that means they must be able to walk and chew gum at the same time.

There is no denying that national interest is a key determinant of why government’s give aid. However, aid can also be given simply for the intrinsic value we place on the wellbeing of communities in our region, that is funding projects which have no other benefit than to assist the communities in receipt of that support.

We should do this because it is the right thing to do, not because we have a strategic interest in doing so. That is what being part of the family means, in many ways it’s about serving the common good ahead a perception of self-interest.

The Asia Pacific region has some of the world’s poorest and most disadvantaged communities. According to the World Bank’s Human Capital Index (HCI) 2020, a child born in Timor-Leste today will be 45 percent as productive when she grows up as she could be if she enjoyed complete education and full health. The HCI for Papua New Guinea stands at 43. To put these figures into some context, a child born in Australia today will be 77 percent as productive when she grows up as she could be if she enjoyed complete education and full health.

There is much work to be done in addressing the issues affecting our nearest neighbours in the Asia/Pacific region. It is naive to suggest that the path forward is simple and straightforward. It is not. However, there are many NGOs actively supporting communities in areas of health, education, skills development and nutrition who with better funding could do more to improve the wellbeing of people across the Asia/Pacific region. This could be achieved by the swift implementation of the government’s election commitment to increase the funding available through the Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP) and by making the program more easily accessible to NGOs.

Supporting our regional family through increased aid and development will be important, but so too is the respect we show to the leaders of those nations which surround us. If we are wanting to be truly part of the Asia/Pacific family, then we need to demonstrate our commitment to the region as a whole and through the lens of the common good.

Joe Zabar is the Chair of Mercy Works Ltd, the community development and relief organisation of the Sisters of Mercy in Australia and Papua New Guinea.

This article first appeared in Eureka Street 

Help save a mother and child with our Chicken and Egg Nutrition Project

Thousands across the remote region of Maucatar in Timor-Leste face extreme hunger and malnutrition

HELP SAVE A LIFE WITH OUR JUNE TAX APPEAL

Timor-Leste remains one of the world’s poorest countries. Maucatar is a remote mountainous area where there is chronic malnutrition, high mortality rates, especially high maternal and baby death rates (38.1 of every 1,000 births under the age of five). These communities have little or no access to clean water, sanitation, roads, education or infrastructure.

For the 13,240 people who live across 22 villages here, there are no homes with running water, bathroom or toilet facilities and most villages do not have electricity. Families here live off what they can grow and find in the forest.

It is here Mercy Works partners with the inspiring Hospitaller Sisters of Mercy to provide a maternity clinic to care for, to educate and to conduct outreach work in remote villages.

Of the 226 antenatal mothers seen at Maucatar Maternity Clinic in 2021, 42.9% were severely malnourished and 76% of postnatal mothers were undernourished.

This chronic malnourishment leads to many other diseases, but because of poor nourishment in lactating mothers, the incidence of stunted growth in children is extremely high.

These Sisters SAVE LIVES and have developed a project to improve the nutritional status of mothers and young children by providing extra protein through the distribution of eggs and egg-laying hens in the area.

Here, 40 families were given 2-3 hens. They learn to take care of and be responsible for their hens through training workshops and planning programs. According to the Sisters, by increasing their own home kitchen gardens these families can not only provide a healthier diet but also sell their eggs at the clinic.

“By raising egg-laying hens, families are able to raise their income and live a better quality of life, by developing their own home kitchen gardens.Many of the families have followed the lessons and advice we are teaching and demonstrating,” says Sr Gilbert Pathrose, who leads the initiative.

(Above) Sr Gilbert gives nutrition advice and leads workshops to promote healthy diets high in protein to improve the lives of mothers and their babies in Maucatar

Chickens and eggs are considered one of the main sources of protein in the diet of the people of this mountainous area.

However, it has been difficult for the Sisters and staff to sustain chickens due to the colder weather. There are often predators in the forest areas hence the idea to farm the chickens with families.

“Having a good balanced diet for every member of the family will build a healthy community,” says Sr Gilbert. “Our goal is for every home to have a kitchen garden to cultivate nutritional foods, to help with breast feeding, to ensure mothers are able to have a healthy baby and a safe delivery and to potentially gain an income.

A villager learns to look after hens to lay eggs in Maucatar

Mercy Works NEEDS YOUR HELP to continue this LIFE-SAVING work providing extra protein through the distribution of eggs through the maternity clinic. YOUR HELP will increase egg production as well as the number of egg laying chickens within the subdistrict.

 
YOUR SUPPORT WILL ALSO provide nutrition to 50 students within a hostel complex managed by the Sisters and staff, as well as to provide life-saving health knowledge to the community where poor sanitation and scarce clean water increases parasites which also leads to malnutrition.
As well as health assessments and follow up outreach care.
Staff at the clinic teach the community about nutrition and the importance of a healthy diet

 

The Sisters health assessments within the community and outreach include:

  • Supplying a diet with sufficient protein, carbohydrates, and fat
  • Measuring the weight and height MUAC and oedema check every month
  • Assessing for signs of skin, ear, nose and throat infections and pneumonia
  • Assessing for signs of developmental delay
  • Assessing for signs of micronutrient and electrolyte deficiency, as well as signs of vitamin A, Zinc and Iron deficiency.
  • Health education program to demonstrate locally available foods which are highly nutrient and how they can be used in their daily life.

To see the life-saving impact of this wonderful project I urge you to read Leticia’s Story

TO DONATE CLICK THE LINK:

https://www.givenow.com.au/mercy-works-overseas-aid-fund

 

Thank you,

Sally Bradley RSM 
Executive Director   
Mercy Works

LETICIA’S STORY

In the Leogore sub-district of the Maucatar District in Suai-Covalima, Clarisia*, aged 35, is a single mother of three children, who lives with an intellectual disability.

Sr Gilbert with Leticia. Her chicken and egg nutrition project with the Hospitaller Sisters of Mercy in Timor-Leste is saving lives.
When the Sisters came to know her in 2017, through their door-to-door visits, Clarisia was pregnant with her third child, Leticia* (pictured left). From here the Sisters closely monitored both mother and child and provided them with all their necessary nutritional needs.
When the Sisters first visited Clarisia she was pregnant with her third child
When Clarisia’s daughter, Leticia, was born in March of 2018, she was a healthy height and weight. “We also encouraged Clarisia to exclusively breast feed,” says Sr Gilbert.
“And we provided many provisions of food and other materials to protect her and the child.”
But when Letitia was eight months old the Sisters lost track of both Letitia and Clarisia. “She moved away to live somewhere else,” says Sr Gilbert.
It was during the village-to-village nutritional program the Sisters started in 2018, they found Clarisia and her little girl.
“We found her again, but the child was severely malnourished. But we knew through the Mercy Works program we really could save the life of this child,” says Sr Gilbert.

As well as severe malnutrition, children in Timor-Leste are especially prone to many infectious diseases like Diarrhoea, Scabies and Upper Respiratory Tract Infections.

“Constant monitoring and treating her with a good balanced diet, including protein from eggs, saved her life,” says Sr Gilbert. 
“We have saved many children from acute illness, even during the time of lock down, as we continued our program without fail conducting house-to-house assessments.
“The Mercy Works nutritional program gives good care to the mother and the children, its good to help and reach out to the remotest villages to care for and save lives.”
 
Mercy Works is happy to report Leticia is now healthy and thriving and reaching her milestones.
Sr Gilbert and staff conduct testing at the Maternity Clinic with a now healthy Leticia, her brother and mum, Clarisia.  
                                                              

YOU CAN SUPPORT more people like Clarisia to gain the necessary skills in nutrition and hygiene they need to triumph over poverty and increase the quality of life for themselves and their babies by DONATING to our Tax Appeal.

 

*Clarisia* and Letitia*’s names have been changed to protect their privacy
All Photos supplied with permission courtesy of Hospitaller Sisters of Mercy

Continue reading “LETICIA’S STORY”

❤️💛🖤Today is National Sorry Day

Today, we remember and acknowledge the forced removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from their families and communities – The Stolen Generations.

We remind ourselves of the historical injustices that are an ongoing source of intergenerational trauma for First Nations Peoples.

The 24th anniversary of Sorry Day marks the tabling of the Bringing Them Home report – which was 25 years ago today. Sorry Day started the year after to recognise the atrocities that happened and to remember and acknowledge the mistreatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders who were removed from their families.

 

Apologising is more than just saying sorry. It means coming together and taking the steps we need to take towards healing. We acknowledge that we still have a long way to go as a nation.

We are proud that our Mercy Works Board Member, Steven Collins, a Pitta Pitta man, is the first Aboriginal Liaison Officer at the Parliament of NSW.

“I see National Sorry Day as a way to acknowledge the strength of Stolen Generation Survivors and how we all share in the healing process,” says Steven.

“Our Adelaide First Nations Advocacy Project, run by Ngadjuri woman Aunty Pat Waria-Read, shows the strength, resilience and the generosity of Stolen Generations survivors in ensuring the pain and trauma they suffered ends with them. Mercy Works works in partnership to ensure Aboriginal voices are heard and front and centre.”

Our Nunga Babies Watch Project has called upon the South Australian Government for immediate action to end another Stolen Generation from happening.

“We do not want ‘assimilation’ of our children to continue, nor do we want a silent continuation of the Stolen Generation,” says the statement.

The on-going intergenerational trauma related to the removal of Aboriginal children is well document. “Aboriginal leaders do not want to see this trauma continued,” says Aunty Pat.

You can read the FULL STATEMENT OF THE TAKING OF ABORIGINAL CHILDREN here

Each Voice Counts!

Our world is hurting right now and there are ways we can respond. We have an opportunity, in an election year, to advocate for a better path. Each voice really does count.

Mercy Works attended an inspiring Women Leaders Network Breakfast this morning thanks to Micah Australia with like minded women to hear and chat about the most pressing issues faced by our communities and how to be best equipped to respond.

Executive Director Sally Bradley RSM and Member for Warringah Zali Steggall at the Micah Women’s Leadership Breakfast at Ultimo on Wednesday morning

With the theme the World We See, women leading change with their organisations on the ground in Africa, India and the Ukrainian Border – Kuki Rokhum, Asuntha Charles & Caroline Brennan – shared the impact the current devastation across the globe is having on women and children, via video.

Executive Director, Sally Bradley RSM, Tim Costello, OA and Micah Executive Director, and Communications Coordinator Jo Casamento at the Micah Women’s Leadership Breakfast at Ultimo

Zali Steggall, OAM, Member for Warringah, stated we all need to engage politically, sharing this story:

“I was presented with some statistics in 2019 that young women aged between 18 and 25 were asked who would be interested in politics. And zero percent were interested in politics. And that horrifies me as a statistic.

“And to paraphrase someone else, if you’re not around the table you’re a meal, right? If you are not part of the decision making, decisions will be made that will impact your lives, that will impact the lives of your families and your children and you won’t have a say.

“So it’s not good enough, and I’m sorry no one gets a leave pass, it’s not good enough to sit on the sidelines.. we can all make a difference. Each voice counts.”

Tim Costello, AO, current Executive Director of Micah Australian and Chief Advocate of World Vision Australia, talked with passion about making sure our leaders commit to a safer world for all. Micah is calling on Australians to make a difference, especially in an election year. Their statement reads:

“When leaders choose war, it is the vulnerable who suffer. Pregnant mothers are forced to flee, children must abandon their education, families are left without food or shelter.

“Australia can help by opening our doors to people fleeing conflict and providing life-saving aid for those who stay.

“But in recent times we’ve accepted fewer refugees, we’ve become less generous with our aid. We can call on all parties to help make a safer world for all by committing to reverse cuts to our refugee program, to increase life-saving humanitarian aid to hotspots and to rebuild Australian Aid.”