X. NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS

Overseas development NGOs are just a small fraction of this wider group, with more than 100 operating in Australia. Some international development NGOs have local affiliates, such as Red Cross, Oxfam and World Vision, whilst others are wholly Australian, for example Palms Australia. Some NGOs operate from Australia whilst others transfer funds to partner NGOs in recipient countries.

A small number of NGOs pioneered private overseas aid during the colonial period before World War II. A larger number were established in the post-war period, and today over 1.5 million Australians are involved in supporting an overseas aid and development NGO, with almost $800 million raised by Australian NGOs for overseas aid and development in 2014.

The government maintains continuing relationships with many large and small Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that are active in human rights and community services (Amnesty International, Australian Red Cross, Defense for Children International, and International Women’s Development Agency). NGOs provide relevant needs-based community services and welfare and promote changes in government policies and activities. Most not-for-profit NGOs were created by religious organizations to meet perceived needs or by community members to deal with a specific problem (Salvation Army, Brotherhood of Saint Lawrence, Care Australia). The government encourages the existence of charitable NGOs through tax exemptions and liberal laws of association and incorporation. NGOs are often established in response to immediate or emergency social problems. The government will intervene when resources are not being used efficiently and when services are being duplicated.

NGOs, particularly those in the nonprofit sector, are major providers of welfare services and significant contributors in the health, education, sport, recreation, entertainment, and finance industries. The bulk of their revenue comes from government grants, private donations, and service fees.

Australia Asia Worker Links (AAWL) is an Australian non-government organization active since 1979, established to forge international labour movement links in the Asia-Pacific region. Its office is in the Victorian Trades Hall Council building in Melbourne, Australia.

AAWL supports workers' rights and human rights, Indigenous rights and women's rights. AAWL promotes solidarity between unions, and advocates for the improvement of pay rates, health and safety, social rights and living standards for workers in the Asia-Pacific region.

AAWL produces print and web-based publications aimed at union members and union activists. The fortnightly news service Mini News is sent to subscribers by email. The AAWL newsletter Asian Workers Organizing is distributed in print form to members and union affiliates and is available from the AAWL website. AAWL has a weekly radio program called Asia Pacific Currents on Melbourne Radio 3CR. The program provides news updates and interviews on labour news in the region. The program is nationally and internationally syndicated and podcasts are available.

Materials developed by AAWL that have been widely used by labour movement activists in the Asia Pacific region include the workshop documents promoting organizing for health & safety through the use of body mapping and the proposed Global Labour Movement Charter.

AAWL has conducted solidarity exchanges and study tours with many countries including Bangladesh, China, East Timor, Fiji, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Islands, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam.

AAWL advocates for fairer treatment of workers throughout the Asia Pacific region and globally. AAWL activities to support workers' rights include campaigning to free labour activists who have been jailed for their union organizing activities. Activists supported by AAWL have included Dita Sari and Muchtar Pakpahan from Indonesia, Tian Chua from Malaysia, Colombian unionist Liliany Obando, Iranian unionist Mansour Osanloo, Korean unionist Han Sang Kyun and Indian doctor Binayak Sen.

Australian Doctors Internationalwas founded in 2000, its goal is to improve the health of people in remote and rural areas of PNG. ADI specializes in Doctor Supervised Integrated Health Patrols, deploying volunteer doctors and health managers to work in partnership with local health providers to provide medical treatment to save lives and reduce suffering, community health education to reduce preventable illness and disease, and training to build the capacity of local health workers.

ADI was founded by former Manly Mayor, politician and general practitioner, Dr Peter Macdonald. The organization first started working in Western Province in partnership with the Catholic Diocese of Daru-Kiunga to help support their rural health network and services. In 2011 ADI expanded its program to remote and rural areas of New Ireland Province in partnership with the Provincial Government.

ADI's key achievements include:

- Deployed more than 30 volunteer doctors on over 38 assignments;

- Distributed 50,000 malaria bed nets to remote villages in Western Province

- Ran a six year Mass Drug Administration program to eliminate lymphatic filariasis in the Nomad-Mougulu region of Western Province

- Ran a HIV/AIDS awareness radio program

- Introduced a leprosy treatment, education and advocacy program for a community of over 30 leprosy patients in the Bosset region of Western Province

- Started an annual in-service health training workshop for over 100 health workers in Western Province, a first for many participants.

As part of its Doctor Supervised Integrated Health Patrols, ADI’s volunteers travel by plane, boat and foot to remote and rural health centres, aid posts and hospitals to provide essential health care to people living in extreme poverty. Western Province, which is located on the border with West Papua, consists of raging rivers, steep mountain ranges up to 8,000m, vast floodplains and dense jungle. New Ireland Province, which is located off the mainland in the far northeast of PNG, consists of many isolated islands separated by rough seas. It can take weeks to complete a patrol in places such as the Star Mountains and Awaba River region in Western Province or Konoagil (otherwise known as The Last Corner by locals) in New Ireland Province.

ADI's services include:

1. Medical treatment: To help save lives and reduce suffering, ADI’s doctors currently treat more than 3,500 patients every year. Some people have never seen a doctor before, others only once every couple of years. Consequently, ADI's doctors see many people in advanced stages of disease that could have been prevented. Common diseases and illnesses include malaria and tuberculosis, leprosy, lymphatic filariasis, muscular skeletal, respiratory and serious eye problems.

2. Training and education: To help strengthen the capacity of local health workers, ADI’s doctors conduct case-based training during clinics and teach medical education sessions. Every year, ADI also facilitates an in-service health training which brings together health staff from various locations for a week of intensive learning with local and expatriate health experts.

3. School and community health education: Many lives are lost due to a lack of knowledge about how diseases are caused, prevented and treated. To help with this, ADI’s doctors and health managers deliver health education talks which address PNG national health priorities and target specific groups. In 2010-2011, ADI’s volunteers gave health talks to over 15,000 adults and school children in Western Province.

Where possible, ADI's doctors work alongside local health workers who perform parallel services including infant immunizations, eye/ear testing and dental treatment. In New Ireland Province, ADI travels with a large team of provincial and district health staff who undertake community health promotion, health centre management, disease control and environmental health activities.

Approved by AusAID as an OADGR, ADI is a member of ACFID and a signatory to its Code of Conduct. ADI aims for continuous improvement in health indicators as a result of its activities through the use of a structured monitoring and evaluation framework.

Australian Volunteers Internationalor AVI recruits skilled professionals from Australia to work with partner organizations in Asia, the Pacific, Africa and the Middle East. Its work focuses on reducing poverty, promoting human rights and gender equality, increasing access to education and health services, and protecting the environment.

In the last 50 years AVI have placed more than 6000 volunteers and other field workers in 70 countries.

Purpose and function

AVI has a vision of a peaceful and just world, where all people have access to the resources they need, the opportunity to achieve their potential, the right to make decisions about the kind of development they want and to participate in the future of their own communities.

Through the AVI Volunteer Program, skilled Australians live and work with local organizations and communities, sharing their skills and building relationships with local people. They receive support including airfares, living allowances and insurance.

The organization also offers a range of people-centred development projects. It runs a short-term program for young Australians, and a range of professional services to Australian organizations including international recruitment and cultural effectiveness training.

AVI programs are funded by the Australian Government through AusAID, other government and corporate agencies, and donations from the Australian community.

History.The first volunteer, Herb Feith, travelled to Jakarta, Indonesia in 1951, taking up the challenge to work alongside Indonesians as a translator as the country dealt with issues of independence. His journey helped establish the Volunteer Graduate Scheme to Indonesia.

TASKS

I. Read the text. Find the words that match the definitions below:

1) a company, organization etc that is connected with or controlled by a larger one;

2) someone who receives something;

3) the way in which two people or two groups feel about each other and behave towards each other;

4) help that is provided for people who have personal or social problems;

5) an amount of money that you must pay to the government according to your income, property, goods etc and that is used to pay for public services;

6) an amount of money that you do not have to pay tax on;

7) someone who gives money, help, ideas etc to something that a lot of other people are also involved in;

8) money that a business or organization receives over a period of time, especially from selling goods or services;

9) an amount of money given to someone, especially by the government, for a particular purpose;

10) something, especially money, that you give to a person or an organization in order to help them;

11) loyalty and general agreement between all the people in a group, or between different groups because they all have a shared aim;

12) to put someone in a place where criminals are kept as a punishment for their crimes or while waiting for trial;

13) to use something for a particular purpose, especially ideas, arguments etc;

14) a relationship between two people, organizations, or countries;

15) something that is done to cure someone who is injured or ill.

Date: 2016-03-03; view: 1164