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.

  • Kevin Rudd says thanks!

    Posted by Tabitha

    13 May, 2011

    "The wider movement we call Micah Challenge and Make Poverty History has brought aid from the outskirts of the political agenda to centre stage," said Kevin Rudd at this morning's thank you breakfast. He also credited the movement for mobilising wide public support of the Millennium Development Goals and for "etching the issue deeply into the souls of Australians". Despite the incredible short notice, more than a hundred passionate aid braved Sydney's record cold snap to turn out this morning for the thank you breaky. The Minister wanted to meet with campaigners to congratulate us on our work in helping secure aid in the Federal Budget. The Government moved to 'quarantine' aid from cuts in this year's 'tough budget', announced on Tuesday night. In thanking campaigners, Mr. Rudd also urged those present to keep up the work of "hassling politicians" on both sides of politics. "The work you've done - big tick. The work you'll do in the future - even more important" he said. "Keep it up!" The Opposition also came out in support of the MDGs yesterday,… read more

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  • Have we lost ourselves in statistics?

    Posted by Eliza

    28 April, 2011

    Atticus Finch was on to something when he said "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view - until you climb into his skin and walk around in it." Atticus was not talking about those in poverty when he said this, but I feel it encapsulates my experience of the 'Connecting Lives' exhibition a few weeks ago. The exhibition, which officially opened in Sydney on Monday, provides the general public with an opportunity to experience the life of three children in Africa; Innocent in a Ugandan IDP (Internally Displaced Persons Camp), Kombo in AID's affected Kenya and Selamawit, enduring child labor in Ethiopia. Having already walked through the story of Kombo at St Mary's Cathedral as part of World Youth Day in 2008, I recently had the privilege of walking through the life of Innocent and Selamawit. The stories of these girls are exceptionally powerful. I found myself hanging onto every word that came through my headphones, not anticipating the emotional extremes that I was experiencing. For 40 minutes I shared their anxiety,… read more

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  • Earthquakes, the Carbon Tax, and Easter

    Posted by Nils

    25 April, 2011

    At Easter we think again of the amazing sacrifice Jesus made for us on the cross. Dying for the sins of the world and triumphing over evil, this was God coming to earth in human flesh, walking among us, making the ultimate sacrifice, and then rising from the dead. But is that what it is really all about? In 1997 author J.B. Phillips wrote a book called ‘Your God is Too Small' in which he lamented the fact that our conception of God does not do justice to who God really is. In 2011, the same is true amongst many Christians in Australia. Our God is too small. We see Easter as Jesus coming to die for our sins and we're not quite sure what the resurrection is really about, save for the fact that we rejoice over it because we believe that, through the resurrection, God has defeated death. If we progress through our walk of discipleship leaving the resurrection at that, we have short-changed the Gospel. The question we as Christians must wrestle with is what the death and resurrection of Jesus 2,000 years ago has to do with the realities of today's… read more

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  • Child and Maternal Health funding - it's kind of a big deal...

    Posted by Simon

    15 April, 2011

    There's big money in aid. Still not as much as there needs to be, when more than 1 billion people are still living in poverty and we spend more than six times the amount of money on military expenditure than poverty reduction. But compared to individual donors like you and me, it's big money all the same. Australia's foreign aid budget has doubled since 2005 and will double again over the next five years to hit an estimated $8-9 billion by 2015 (assuming the Australian Government holds to its promise of increasing foreign aid to 0.5 per cent of Gross National Income by 2015). Poverty is a big problem, so there needs to be big money in aid-but with Australia's total foreign aid budget increasing, what programs should this new funding focus on? In November, the Australian Government initiated an independent review of our nation's aid program to answer that exact question. The aid review gave individuals and organisations the chance to put forward their views. So in that spirit, here's my two cents: child and maternal health programs should top AusAID's priority… read more

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