Results International (Australia)

Education for All released to the world

kitka — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 04:43:00 +0000

From our National Research & Advocacy Coordinator Taniele Gofers:

FOLLOWING the successful MP visits in Canberra this week, RESULTS presented our Education For All report to a Multilateral Development Bank Roundtable.

The report was well-received by AusAID, The World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, who acknowledged the importance of the report in highlighting the work that needs to be done to ensure equitable access to education for girls and children with disabilities in developing countries, and encouraged RESULTS to keep drawing attention to these vital issues. Go RESULTS!

Personally, this was the ‘advocacy moment’ of my trip to Canberra because the meeting highlighted the impact that we can have, as members of the community, by using our voice, passion and perseverance to get a seat at the table with key stakeholders from these large development agencies.

Harnessing the incredible talent at RESULTS, we can take advantage of this seat at the table by presenting the Education for All report and in particular, its recommendations to these agencies.

Knowing that they are taking these recommendations on board, and continually looking to improve, was empowering for all the individuals who worked on the report, but more importantly, it is incredibly exciting to look towards the outcomes this will hopefully deliver for education equity in the developing world.

RESULTS in Canberra: The Final Day

kitka — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 10:34:00 +0000

OVER the last two days, RESULTS met with numerous MPs on the issues of keeping open TB Clinics in the Torres Strait whilst building capacity in PNG to ensure that local residents are able to access quality treatment for TB.

The good news is that AusAID will be providing 8 million dollars to improve facilities at Daru Hospital – but in the meantime, it is crucially important that services are still available for these hard to reach communities.

RESULTS is supporting parliamentary champion on this issue, North Queensland MP Warren Entsch (below).

RESULTS advocates Peter and Taniele with The Hon Warren Entsch MP
(Federal Member for Leichhard) in Canberra today, February 29

Raising the profile of the link between TB and HIV was the focus of many of our meetings in Canberra. This year, RESULTS secured commitments from parliamentarians to pass motions in both the House of Represenatives and the Senate drawing attention to this link on March 22, the closest sitting day to World TB Day on March 24.

Parliamentarians are also eager to wear the ‘Stop TB’ red ribbon on this day to draw attention to the HIV/TB link, with TB remaining the largest killer of people living with HIV.

RESULTS in Canberra: Day 2

kitka — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 10:24:00 +0000

Despite government leadership vote of yesterday RESULTS managed to have some productive meetings (mostly with Coalition MPs).

Each reaffirmed their commitment to having Australia’s aid program reach 0.5 per cent of GNI by 2015.

One of our objectives today is to speak with Government MPs to have the new Foreign Minister restate their commitment to 0.5 per cent also.

RESULTS advocates Peter and Taniele meeting with
The Hon John Murphy MP (Federal Member for Reid) in
Canberra on Monday, February 28.

Read Peter’s account of Day 2 from Canberra:

Over the last 2 days I have met with eight parliamentarians! I have been overwhelmed by the interest in RESULTS recently released education report.

They have committed to write to the new Minister calling for greater focus on reaching girls and children with disabilities in education programs run by AusAID.

I am also going to help draft a speech to be made in the Senate in coming weeks!

My first visit to Canberra has been a very positive experience indeed.

RESULTS in Canberra

kitka — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 02:06:00 +0000

RESULTS members on the steps of Parliament House today, February 26

We are here at Parliament House on a very important day.

It’s not just about the Rudd and Gillard ballot.

We are ten people ready to meet with MPs and Senators on pressing global poverty issues such as threats to ongoing funding for the Global Fund – the largest global funder of TB and malaria programs, and the second largest funder of HIV programs.

Two RESULTS volunteers are on their first trip to Canberra and they had this to say so far:

Camilla from Sydney’s Northern Beaches:

I am very excited to be here and already feel the gravity and importance of what we will do today.
I already feel that we have the potential to make a huge difference for poor people around the world.

Peter from Inner Sydney:

I am just delighted to be a part of the democratic process and be part of the RESULTS team here in Canberra. Having worked closely as an intern with RESULTS on the recently released education report I look forward to inspire MPs to take action to help more girls and children with disabilities to get into school.

Helping make poverty history this Christmas

kitka — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 00:20:00 +0000

On Saturday November 17, 2011, Ella Pearse (daughter of RESULTS Northern Beaches member Melissa Pearse), and her two friends Edita and Sienna, held a small fundraising stall at a local shopping centre and raised a remarkable $120! Here’s what they wrote:

We decided to raise for RESULTS because we wanted to help make poverty history and help save children and their families all round the world that aren’t as lucky as us.

Firstly, we had a meeting together to plan out what we were going to make, how much everything was to be and what we had to bring on the day.

We made the lucky dip, lolly bags and cards so they were ready for the stall.

On Sunday the 20^th we met at Edita’s house at 10.30am to make all of the food. At around 1:00pm we finally finished making the food and Edita’s mum drove us up to Elanora Top shops to set up our stall. We set up our stall in front of the Elanora Newsagent because it was closed.

When customers came to our stall or people were walking past we told them we were raising money for a group called results that is trying to make poverty history.

Although 50 per cent of the people didn’t buy anything, most of them donated money anyway. After an hour and a half Edita’s mum picked us up from our stall and we took everything back. After cleaning up and sorting everything out we counted up all of the money that we raised together which added up to $120!

We thank everyone that donated money for RESULTS to help end poverty!

From left to right: Ella Pearse (11yrs-old), Edita Grinsberg (10yrs-old), and Sienna Baker (11yrs-old).

World AIDS Day

riaust — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 04:03:16 +0000

December 1 is World AIDS Day, observed across the world to raise awareness about the issues surrounding HIV/AIDS.
Read our media release: AIDS funding at a critical crossroad: Lives will be lost despite recent progress

The Global Fund forced to cancel 11th funding round

riaust — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 02:30:14 +0000

Read our media release: Global Fund Forced to Cancel Funding Round, Jeopardising Health of Millions

2011 Global Microcredit Summit: Day 2

kitka — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 02:03:00 +0000

>Our National Manager, Maree Nutt, is in Spain this week for the 2011 Global Microcredit Summit.

Day 2:

YESTERDAY, November 15, I met Kirsten Hambly, First Secretary to the Australian Ambassador to Spain (Ms Zorikas McCarthy). We all agreed that on the whole microfinance initiatives are very useful and an important tool for poverty reduction.

There are many hundreds of institutions here at the summit doing great work, like the Grameen Bank, the BRAC in Bangladesh, Fonkoze in Haiti, Kashf in Pakistan, Jamii Bora in Kenya and many, many more.

We talked about the challenge in how to differentiate ‘good’ microfinance from the ‘bad’ microfinance that recently attracted media attention.

An expert panel is now working through The Summit Campaign and developing a ‘Seal of Excellence’, whereby microfinance institutions would be certified and easily recognised for their strong financial performance, protection of clients, and their strong focus on poverty reduction.

The Ambassador’s representatives agreed to report on the importance of the summit, and agreed to include RESULTS’ request to double aid for microfinance in her report to Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd.

2011 Global Microcredit Summit

kitka — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 00:18:00 +0000

>OUR National Manager, Maree Nutt is in Spain at the 2011 Global Microcredit Summit and has recently written about the opening ceremony:

QUEEN Sofia of Spain has just opened the Global Microcredit Summit in the beautiful city of Valladolid, two hours from Madrid.

She recounted, seeing with her own eyes, the positive impact of microfinance when she visited Grameen Bank over 16 years ago.

Queen Sofia has participated in every global summit since, and Spain can be proud of being the second-highest aid donor in microfinance programs, totalling almost $1 billion! We could do with such a champion in Australia.

Any suggestions?

Disappointingly, AusAID is not represented here, and the Australian Ambassador to Spain, who was due to representing Australia is sick with flu. Instead, I will meet with the Ambassador’s First Secretary shortly…

Make sure you follow our blog for continual updates of Maree’s visit to Spain.

Her Majesty Queen Sofía of Spain, is Honorary Co-Chair of the Microcredit Summit Campaign.

Pneumonia kills babies: To protect them – vaccinate!

kitka — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 01:55:00 +0000

>Dr. Kate O’Brien is pediatrician, epidemiologist, Deputy Director of the International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC), Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA, and a winner of the 2011 US Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. Read why she thinks World Pneumonia Day is so important:

I AM a pediatrician, an infectious disease pediatrician at that. We’re supposed to know what to do when a baby has pneumonia – apparently that’s not always true. I’ve treated hundreds of such cases – but this time was different.

When it’s your own infant none of that experience matters.

Jack looked at me with what seemed like panic in his eyes. Coughing, crying, breathing fast, sleeping in fits and spurts. Babies aren’t supposed to breath that fast. He lay beside me in bed. It was the day before Christmas and I just kept telling myself that we’d be better soon—apparently that’s not true either. We both had influenza, I’m sure of that. If you’ve had it you’ll know what I mean—I felt like hell, exhausted, muscle aches, every time I coughed it felt like sandpaper scraping over my trachea. But since I’m an infectious disease doc, of course we were vaccinated!—well, apparently that wasn’t true this year. I had every intention of getting that done weeks earlier, but life got in the way.

The middle of the night always makes things worse, or at least things seem worse. So, we became ‘that family’, calling our neighbors in the middle of the night to care for our two-year old while we drove to the hospital with Jack. So many times I was that doctor we were about to meet in the emergency room, scratching my head wondering, “Why did they wait the whole day at home and decide to finally come in at 2 in the morning?” Well, now I knew. Sometimes it doesn’t get better. He had pneumonia on the chest x-ray and needed antibiotics.

Baby Jack at 4 months.

Every day, of every year, millions of children get pneumonia and struggle to breath; more than a million of them don’t get the treatment they need and die. Every day of every year something unimaginable to the mothers we are, happens to mothers we don’t know, over 90 per cent of them living in poor countries in Africa and Asia —their child dies in front of their eyes from pneumonia. It’s senseless. It’s inhuman.

Vaccines against the biggest pneumonia causing bacteria, Hib and pneumococcus, along with other simple strategies can prevent these deaths.

So, this year on World Pneumonia Day, look at your kids and remember to get them vaccinated, remember to get yourself vaccinated and remember that not every mother is so lucky….yet.

The GAVI Alliance is helping give those mothers the same opportunity for their kids, faster than ever before for any vaccine. At a time when the world seems to be more complicated than ever, this seems like a pretty sensible thing to do.