Australians are being encouraged to send a Christmas card to their local MP as part of a joint campaign of Micah Challenge and Make Poverty History.
CARDS WITH A PURPOSE: Jemma Payne and feelow members of Gymea Baptist Church write Christmas cards to their local MP, Immigration Minister Scott Morrison.
John Beckett, national coordinator of Micah Challenge Australia, is encouraging people to send a card to their local federal MP and ask them for a “generous and effective contribution to ending extreme global poverty” as they express their concern over the $4.5 billion which will be cut from Australia’s foreign aid budget over the next four years.
Those who write are also being encouraged to include a gift purchased from one of Micah Challenge’s partner agencies’ Christmas gift catalogues which allow you to buy such things as goats for families in Nepal or skills training for Bangladesh on behalf of someone else.
“By making a personal contribution to ending poverty on behalf of our MPs, we can show our leaders that Australians are committed to generosity towards the poor, that we’re practising that generosity and that it’s our desire to see that reflected in our national parliament as well…” says Mr Beckett.
“What better time than Christmas, when we celebrate the generosity of God in sending His Son Jesus into the world, to highlight the need for our leaders to also be people who practise generosity.”
The genesis of the idea for the campaign came from Jemma Payne, a 19-year-old university student in Sydney who, frustrated over the cuts to foreign aid, decided the combination of advocacy and a donation could send a memorable message to MPs.
“Online campaigns and petitions have their place when it comes to be generally informed about what’s going on in the world…but making the extra effort to send a handwritten message or go to an event is a very powerful way of showing the government you feel strongly about something,” she says.
~ www.micahchallenge.org.au/christmas-action.
