Posts Tagged ‘COSMOS’

A walk for water

Friday, November 7, 2014

Village in Nepal to benefit from student’s Sunday hike

Ellyse Brooks
Bachelor of Arts student
Avondale College of Higher Education
Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia

I bush-bashed from Swansea Heads, past Catherine Hill Bay and into Wybung Head on a hot and blowy Sunday. That’s 21 kilometres. I walked with containers of water over my shoulder alongside 20 other students from Avondale College of Higher Education. We walked for change. We walked for water.

Students carrying water on walk

Avondale students carried containers of water on their 21-kilometre Fit to Drink walk.

I almost caught myself complaining about the unbearableness of it all, then I had a flashback.

Four months before Fit to Drink, the name Avondale student mission club COSMOS gave to the walk, I tried to carry 30 litres of water on my head, Nepali-style. I could walk barely five metres while my 12-year-old friend walked with a full container at a steady pace. She does this every day. She held my hand as she showed me around her family’s home and its surrounds in the village of Hoxe east of the capital, Kathmandu.

My Development Field Experience classmates and I travelled to Nepal in June and July. We traversed 19 of its 75 districts to visit 15 villages, all beneficiaries of Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) projects. Hoxe would benefit from a COSMOS donation if the villagers developed a plan and received professional local advice to fund a water project.

Fit to Drink has raised more than $5000 for Hoxe. With further consultation and follow-up, COSMOS will help make the collection of safe drinking water an easier task for the villagers.

What did I learn from this uncomfortable coastal walk? We can all do something to change the world, one step at a time.

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Regeneration begins

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Green Avondale: Encouraged either by one hour’s paid leave or by student club COSMOS, staff members and students planted 400 trees in four hours over two days during Avondale College of Higher Education’s Green Week (September 5-10). The trees are all natives donated by not-for-profit community organisation Trees In Newcastle. They are now growing along Girls Walk and near the dam between the Cooranbong Community Services Centre and Avondale Springs, both on Avondale’s Lake Macquarie campus. The planting should promote an increase in flora and fauna on campus and perhaps the return of kangaroos.—Brenton Stacey Credit: Krissie Hopkins.

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COSMOS says thank you for Fairtrade support

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Kirsten Bolinger
Public relations assistant
Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia

Student mission club COSMOS hosted a free soup and buns evening to thank those who supported Fairtrade Fortnight on Avondale College’s Lake Macquarie campus.

COSMOS raised $1075 in less than one hour during its slave auction and sold more than 80 per cent of the chocolate it bought as part of its Fairtrade Fortnight promotion. The campaign, which included collecting signatures for a petition encouraging Avondale to buy more Fairtrade certified products, gave the club a presence on campus, says vice-president (public relations and marketing) Anjuli Cruz. “We have people on our team who want to see change and are making it happen.”

“We wanted to do something to show our appreciation that didn’t involve asking for money,” says COSMOS team member Tammy Zyderveld.

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COSMOS to push for Fairtrade food

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Kirsten Bolinger
Public relations assistant
Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia

Student mission club COSMOS is promoting a campaign called Fairtrade Fortnight as part of its push to make changes to Avondale College’s food purchases.

COSMOS and the Out of the Box Café are selling Fairtrade products, including chocolate, until Friday this week. Credit: Natalie Rixom.

COSMOS wants Avondale to buy more Fairtrade certified products to sell in the Out of the Box Café on the Lake Macquarie campus. The club and the café have been selling Fairtrade products since Fairtrade Fortnight began on campus on Monday this past week (May 3). COSMOS has also been collecting signatures for a petition it plans to present to Avondale’s administrators.

The promotion seems to be working, with director of food services Nick Hartigan reporting an increase in the sales of hot drinks. Nick is a supporter of the Fairtrade movement, but he is also committed to providing a cost-effective service. He trialled the use of Fairtrade products in the café this past year but received only a lukewarm response. “I can’t afford to stock a product that doesn’t move,” he says.

According to The Fair Trade Association of Australia and New Zealand, Fairtrade is about better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world. “Fairtrade Fortnight reminds us our purchasing power does make a difference in poor countries,” says Brad Watson, a lecturer in international development studies in the Faculty of Arts and staff adviser for COSMOS.

Brad and the COSMOS team have repositioned the club this year—it now focuses on advocacy, development and sustainability. Says vice-president (public relations and marketing) Anjuli Cruz, “We belong to a Christian college and should all have a vested interest in what is happening in the world around us.”—with Brenton Stacey

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