Are you an advocate for basic human rights?
Alexandra Radovan
Bachelor of Arts student
Avondale College of Higher Education
An advocate protects and raises awareness of the human rights of others. During Social Justice Week, students at Avondale College of Higher Education are campaigning for the rights of those in Nepal who lack access to safe drinking water and to clean toilets, which dramatically reduces quality of life.
We’re blessed in Australia with constant access to abundant amounts of clean water and to sanitation services. So, we have the ability, and responsibility, to help those who are less fortunate.
God wants us to act in response to injustice. Themes in Proverbs suggest we should not withhold good from those who deserve it.
According to the United Nations General Assembly, safe and clean drinking water and sanitation is a human right essential to the full enjoyment of life. The United Nations designed the Millennium Development Goals to halve poverty by 2015. Goal seven focuses on the rights of every individual to have access to safe drinking water, improved sanitation and appropriate hygiene.
Did you know 773 million people still live without access to safe drinking water and 2.6 billion still don’t have access to decent sanitation?
Today, 3000 children died from water, sanitation and hygiene related causes. At the current level of development, we will not reach the target to halve the proportion of people without access to improved sanitation until 2026. Basic human rights are being violated daily, and the question is, what are we going to do about it? It’s time to give poverty the flush.
Patrick McDonald, founder of the non-government organisation Viva Network, has said: “Why is it that one child’s death amounts to a tragedy, but the death of millions is merely a statistic?”
Our objective during Social Justice Week is to empower one village in Nepal by raising money to dig wells and not graves for children.
Will you help?
Alexandra Radovan is a Bachelor of Arts student majoring in communication and international poverty and development studies at Avondale College of Higher Education.
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