Over two days last week people from churches across Australia met with federal MPs to call for justice for the 1.4 billion people around the world still living in poverty. NADJA LEFFLER was among them…
More than 320 members of churches from every denomination met face to face with MPs at Parliament House, Canberra, this week to call for justice for the 1.4 billion people still living in extreme poverty.
THE MICAH SCROLL: Gail Tabor, Tas Fitzer, and Jo Riley, all from Bega, were among those who travelled to Canberra for Voices for Justice. Here, they inspect the Micah Call which was presented to then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott at Parliament House during the Voices for Justice events – it is a scroll representing 110,000 online signatures calling for Australia to keep its promise to do its fair share to halve global poverty by 2015. PICTURE: Richard Agius.
“We were on our way to try to convince our elected representatives to support the UN Millennium Development Goals. We had learned how Australia had promised in the year 2000 to follow this worldwide strategic plan to halve global poverty by 2015, and still had the means to do so, and now we had to go in there and remind the MPs.”
They were part of Micah Challenge’s Voices for Justice campaign which annually gives Christians interested in helping poor communities two days of training on aid issues and lobbying. It then arranges events and appointments at Parliament House.
This was my first year and as we stood in the cold at 7am on Monday morning waiting for security to let us into Parliament House, I don’t think I was the only one thinking – surely this isn’t real? I, a mum of three from Lindfield, Sydney, am part of a group of seven Christians, none with lobbying experience, and four of them school students.
We were on our way to try to convince our elected representatives to support the UN Millennium Development Goals. We had learned how Australia had promised in the year 2000 to follow this worldwide strategic plan to halve global poverty by 2015, and still had the means to do so, and now we had to go in there and remind the MPs. Each group had at least one from each of the major parties and more than 130 were visited on 21st and 22nd June.
The Minister for Ageing, Justine Elliot, welcomed us warmly and was especially delighted to hear from the school students. Later in the day, retiring Victorian Liberal MP Petro Georgio, admitted he could do nothing to help us, then gave us encouragement and advice for future lobbying: no one can make the whole world a better place, but never stop trying to make whatever corner you choose, that bit better.
Pastor Paul Perini, chair of the Micah Challenge National Steering Committee, who has been a part of this for five years, was smiling broadly when I met him in the foyer area surrounded by paintings of former prime ministers. He was happy following the success that morning of the formal presentation of the Micah Call scroll – representing 110,000 signatures of Christians around Australia calling for more and better aid for those suffering extreme poverty.
“To hear both the prime minister (then PM Kevin Rudd) and the leader of the opposition this morning at our event confirming their commitment to increasing aid to 0.5 per cent of GNI and advocating a move towards 0.7 in the future – the amount needed to meet our fair share of the Millennium Development Goals – was truly satisfying,” he said.
He said it was essential for Christians to act on these global issues. “Care for the poor and the pursuit of justice are integral to living out the mission of Jesus. We have to tell the Jesus story, but also have to demonstrate it through our care for the poor and marginalised,” he said.
Michelle Perini said she was involved to help the mothers and the children who have no voice. “We have benefitted from an excellent health system and we take so much for granted…We want others to have access to the health resources they need to prevent the 8.8 million deaths of children under five each year, mostly from easily preventable causes like diarrhea.”
Micah Challenge National Coordinator Mr. John Beckett said progress towards the UN Millennium Development Goals had been made, but more and better directed funds were needed, especially for child and maternal health.
“In 1990, 42 per cent of the world was living in extreme poverty. It has now dropped to 19 per cent,” he said.”This goal can be achieved, as long as the voters in this election year, tell their local members that they do care.” He urged people to write letters to the local MPs expressing their concern.
The momentum behind the campaign to eradicate poverty continues to grow in Australia. Micah Challenge’s Voices for Justice gathering follows the visit of more than 1,000 young Australians that road-tripped to Canberra last month for the Make Poverty History summit.
Micah Challenge is a global movement of aid and development agencies, churches, schools, groups and individual Christians who want to deepen their engagement with poor communities and influence world leaders to meet their commitments to the UN Millennium Development Goals.
