Micah Challenge Australia Blog

 

The Micah Challenge blog is a space for discussion and debate about the issues of global poverty, faith, advocacy and justice and the Millennium Development Goals. This blog aims to provoke thought and challenge you to learn more about the issues discussed. We welcome your comments.

Micah Challenge is a global campaign of Christians speaking out against poverty and injustice. Click here to visit the Micah Challenge website.

  • Reflections on Voices for Justice

    Posted by Josh

    26 September, 2012

    Well, the Micah Challenge’s Voices for Justice conference is over for another a year, and I thought I might offer just a few reflections on what we did while we were in Canberra for the four incredible days. Though the quality of the teaching sessions, the general reality of our diversity in unity, and the important meetings with (over 100!) MPs are obviously very important to note (and great to take part in), I thought I’d take a step back and look at some of the larger themes. The conference this year centred, basically, around two main points: 1) Firstly, it was noted very clearly that we need to celebrate the progress that has already been made towards reaching the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. For me, this was such an incredibly important part of the whole conference. Though it is true that we still have a long way to go in some instances (and I’ll get to that below), I believe that it’s essential to celebrate the progress that has been achieved. When dealing with issues of poverty and social justice, it’s… read more

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  • Voices For Justice Day 2 - We are a Peculiar People

    Posted by Micah Challenge

    16 September, 2012

    Voices for Justice 2012 began last night and 300 Christians, converging into Canberra to campaign for the world’s poorest, joined me. From electorates all around Australia, we represent different denominations and backgrounds, spanning across numerous generations. From teachers, retirees, advertising consultants to development workers, students and journalists, we are indeed a peculiar people. We are peculiar because, despite our diversity, we are united through Christ’s love and His love for the poor. For politicians, we are even more peculiar because we are not lobbying for our own self-interest but for the interests of the marginalised. Day in and day out, politicians meet with their constituents and professional lobbyists, who are armed with their own agendas and issues. But over the next two days at Parliament House, our local politicians will be meeting with us, a motley crew of passionate Christians, half of whom are first-timers, determined to halve poverty by 2015. Today we learnt about the three issues that we will be speaking about to… read more

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  • $22 Billion for World's Justice?

    Posted by Scott

    10 September, 2012

    How would you like to raise $22 billion for anti-poverty programs around the world? That's not $22 million but $22 billion. Sounds impossible right? Well maybe not. Back in September 2000 world leaders, including Australia's Prime Minister, gathered in Geneva and declared that the new millennium would be one in which we would forge a new world. “We will spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanising conditions of extreme poverty, to which more than a billion of them are currently subjected. We are committed to making the right to development a reality for everyone and to freeing the entire human race from want.” Inspiring words, but such words have been spoken many times before. Would these be yet another empty promise? Perhaps not, because this time the world's leaders put measurable targets against their pledge. They set 2015 as the date by which eight millennium development goals would be achieved and set targets against each goal - the proportion of people living on a dollar a day… read more

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  • These Men Have Never Carried a Drop of Water

    Posted by Tim

    27 August, 2012

    My recent book, Hope, contains anecdotes that come from where I have travelled with my work or impressions I have gathered as I reflect on my lived experience. A dominant thread through the book is that of hope. I am essentially a hopeful person who believes that life has a way of giving us the impetus to keep going in hard times, and not to give in to cynicism and despair. Following is an excerpt from the book which illustrates the hope that I see on my travels: I love watching the advertisements when charities devoutly declare that they are not political. What they mean to say, or in my view should say, is: we are not partisan but, of course, we are political. We should never be partisan and have a secret agenda to back a particular political party or interfere in domestic politics – tempting as that is when dictators rule. But we cannot do development without being small ‘p’ political. Politics is about power and who gets what they want and who misses out. Development and lifting people out of poverty often means disturbing power that… read more

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