AUSTRALIA must lift its health budget to developing countries if agreed goals to reduce global poverty are to be realised, a young woman from Delungra has told politicians in Canberra.

Annabel Stoddart of ‘Springvale’ Delungra, along with fellow New England Girls’ School students Lexie McCullagh from Sydney and Lucy Hook of Armidale, joined around 300 other young campaigners from across Australia at the Voices for Justice gathering from September 17-20, where they lobbied for more government aid to help improve sanitation services.

Voices for Justice is an initiative of Micah Challenge, a global campaign of Christian organisations seeking to halve world poverty in line with the UN Millennium Development Goals.

“At the moment only 35 cents in every one hundred dollars goes to the international aid budget.

“The original goal was to raise that to 70 cents by 2015, but there is only bipartisan agreement to increase it to 50 cents,” Annabel said.

“As part of the campaign we were lobbying politicians to commit to a timetabled agreement for the international aid target to be achieved.”

Accompanied by NEGS chaplain Karen Eastment and fellow Armidale campaigner Will Winter, the group were the only ones from region to attend, and presented their case for more aid in one to one meetings with politicians including Independent Member for New England Tony Windsor, Liberal Member for Grey (SA) Rowan Ramsey, Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan, Labor Member for Moreton Graham Perrett, Labor Speaker Harry Jenkins and a chance encounter with ABCTV political editor Chris Uhlmann.

Their visit included taking in a Parliamentary Question Time, witnessing Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott in action.

According to the girls, it opened their eyes not only to the size of the problem, but how difficult it is to solve – not least being the need for bipartisan support. As a result of their lobbying, Mr Windsor accepted an invitation to speak about the effects of climate change on world poverty at the NEGS ‘Walk in our Shoes Day’ on October 30, a program of awareness and practical activities focusing on disadvantage in other communities.

“It made us realise how privileged we are in world terms, and because of that we need to make a difference, whether it be by money or by our skills,” Annabel said.

© 2011 Inverell Times

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