Results advocates are amazing! They are the heart of our grassroots activities, taking action to advocate for a world without poverty.
Welcome to our grassroots highlight series, where each month we will be shining a light on one of our amazing advocates by asking a set of questions. Please say hello to Bruna!
Tell us briefly about who you are?
Hi everyone! My name is Bruna and I’m a scientist from Brazil. I am currently in Australia doing my PhD at the Australian National University (in Canberra – Australia). I’m working on a Science Education project that focuses on understanding how undergraduate students learn what science is and what doing science means. I deeply believe that learning science should be less about facts, contents and techniques and more about developing a sense of belonging and understanding the importance of science, community and collaborative work.
I’m also an educational and health equity advocate and I am deeply committed to creating a world where every person, regardless of background, has access to fundamental healthcare and quality education.
Why are you passionate about ending global poverty?
I came to Australia in 2013 for the first time to do an internship at UNSW. After coming back to Brazil, my home country, I started seeing things in a completely different way. Before coming to Australia I had only experienced life in Brazil and didn’t know better. After experiencing a new world with much less poverty (in comparison to Brazil) I decided that one of my life goals would be to work towards ending global poverty.
As a citizen and an educator in Brazil, I was able to see poverty and its impact on people firsthand. With poverty comes a lack of access to quality education, fundamental healthcare, low life expectancy, high rates of child mortality and so on. And I strongly believe that by addressing global poverty we are giving people not only their dignity back but also what they are entitled to as every human being.
Why did you join Results?
I have always been interested in volunteering but most of my work focused on education. Last year, during the COVID outbreak in Australia I felt that I needed to contribute to ending global poverty and to enhancing public health, not only in Australia but also in regions that need help the most.
I joined Results mid-year last year (2020). I am now the Group Coordinator of the Results ACT group and I’ve been in this role since the beginning of 2021. I joined Results because I believe in the power of everyday people fighting together to end global poverty. And I’ll stay with Results as I am impressed with how much Results invests in their grassroots advocates and how much we learn and achieve through campaigning with Results.
What does Advocacy mean to you?
To me, advocacy means taking action to create change. At Results, we as grassroots advocates organise ourselves to take steps to address global poverty. But more than a textbook definition, advocacy to me means everyday people using their agency and creating social change. Regardless of how much we have to contribute, everyone has the power to create positive change towards social justice and equality.
You recently attended the Humanitarian Leadership Conference through Results. What were some of the biggest lessons from the conference?
For me, the biggest lesson from the conference was the need to challenge the traditional humanitarian systems and reshape the humanitarian ecosystem into what we want it to look like in the future. This would include a range of steps from finding transformative ways of working and redefining the actors involved to challenging the definition of humanitarian crisis. Most importantly, the focus needs to be in reshaping a new humanitarian ecosystem that is diverse, embraces the agency of affected people and promotes distributed power, social justice and equity.