GOAL 5:
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• O ur youth movement, VGen, organised a national CHN mime to protest against the Federal Government’s broken promise on aid. Up to 1,000 young people dressed as mimes converged on capital cities around the country and protested in a silent freeze-frame for 15 minutes. The protesters then marched through the city and shared their message with weekend shoppers. The mime attracted metropolitan and local media coverage and was a hot topic on social media.
Don’t Trade Lives campaign Over the past four years, World Vision’s Don’t Trade Lives campaign has successfully raised public awareness of human trafficking. Human trafficking is estimated to be a $32 billion industry, with over 50 percent of that wealth generated in industrialised countries like Australia. The exploitation of people for profit is a global crime that affects us all. World Vision Australia believes we all have a role in addressing it. Our campaign is holistic in that it influences individuals, businesses and government to make changes. Don’t Trade Lives campaign highlights included: • O ver 70 Australian churches participated in Abolitionist Sunday in November 2011. This annual day motivates Christians and churches to continue the fight against human trafficking and slavery by taking action within their own congregations and communities;
Grow value generated from our church strategic partnerships Strategic Church Partnerships For World Vision, churches are our indispensable partners. One of our core policies states that the ability to establish meaningful partnerships with churches is a key competency of our organisation. In the three years since the Church Partnerships team adopted a new approach to engagement with churches and other Christian networks, over 20 strategic partnerships have been created. Our intentional focus on deeper relationships with fewer church teams has been pivotal. These new partnerships are based around geographical areas or thematic issues, such as child labour, maternal and child health, or HIV and AIDS. The depth of these new relationships is already evident. Our pattern of engagement is around five key areas, which foster both depth and breadth in these partnerships:
• T he Australian Labor Party announced in its national platform that it would appoint a Global Ambassador for People Trafficking Issues. This was a direct response to World Vision’s Don’t Trade Lives campaign advocating for the appointment of an expert ambassador; • W orld Vision VGen youth activists met with the UN Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons during her state visit to Australia. As a result, the Don’t Trade Lives campaign influenced the inclusion of key issues in the Special Rapporteur’s official recommendations to the Australian Government. These included: •
considering the appointment of an Australian Ambassador for Trafficking;
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i ncreasing Official Development Assistance contributions to assist in the prevention of trafficking and for less developed economies to tackle its root causes;
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Discover Informed reflection on questions of faith, poverty and justice.
Discover
Worship Through worship, respond in meaningful ways to the call of Jesus to bear witness to his Kingdom.
Act
Worship
Share Giving financially in generous and sacrificial ways.
Share
Connect
e ncouraging an increased focus on the role of business in combating trafficking (which will be the subject of the Special Rapporteur’s next report);
• W e continue to lobby the Australian chocolate industry to review its supply chains and to cease using forced child and trafficked labour in the production of cocoa. Over 12,000 of our supporters, “Demanded a Sweeter Deal” from Australian chocolate companies in April 2012. Our public events in local communities, universities and churches raised awareness of the issue. This public pressure has assisted us in influencing Ferrero, Lindt, Nestle and Mars to all make timetabled commitments to 100 percent sourcing of ethical cocoa.
Make Poverty History and Micah Challenge Through the Make Poverty History coalition, World Vision Australia organised 12 electorate events to demonstrate public support for increases in overseas aid. Our events included a photo exhibition, which shared compelling case studies on progress made on the Millennium Development Goals and how aid saves lives. As an active member of Micah Challenge, World Vision Australia continues to campaign with Christians to speak out against poverty and injustice. This partnership has involved training around Christian advocacy and organising electoral forums with churches. The Voices for Justice event held in Canberra in September 2012 trained 280 Australian Christians in advocacy. VGen inspired and empowered 50 passionate young people. Participants met with more than 60 Members of Parliament to advocate on behalf of the world’s poor, asking our political decision makers for more effective overseas aid.
Connect Sharing experiences and learning together with people living in poverty.
Act Speaking the truth in places of power. Advocating with and on behalf of the poor.
International Church Partnerships The appointment of an International Church Partnerships Manager in 2012 will further the development of our new International Church Partnerships (ICPs) strategy. By linking congregations in Australia with churches based in our field project areas, we aim to create mutual benefits for supporters and local communities. Churches and their members now expect that partnership with World Vision Australia will enable them to engage directly with our work in the field. They want transformative experiences, real relationships and face-to-face engagement. They have moved past a paradigm of “pray, pay and stay out of the way”. World Vision International has established a framework for ICPs. It seeks to establish and manage a program, which delivers results consistent with the higher expectations of churches and supports rather than disrupts the work of our field offices. Our pilot program of ICPs has been created in development with others: • V ulnerable Children of Port Moresby (Pacific) is tackling child exploitation in the slum areas of Port Moresby. • I MPACTS – Cambodia (Asia) is a project of cooperation between churches, World Vision and other NGOs in Cambodia, and the Cambodian Government to improve the capacity of local organisations to address the needs of orphans and other vulnerable children.
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