Avondale program engages with world needs

Brad Watson and John Cox

Avondale’s Bachelor of Arts major in International Poverty and Development Studies (IPDS) engages students with world needs, equipping them for humanitarian service in organisations like the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA).

Taught since 2000, the IPDS major has the distinction of being one of the first such courses established by Australian higher education providers. The major provides a broad overview of global humanitarian issues, including poverty, community empowerment, millennium development goals, ethical child sponsorship, orphan-care and HIV/AIDS. There is also a strong emphasis on environmental issues. Students graduate with a solid understanding of the history of foreign aid since World War II. A strength of the program is the potential for students to observe and participate in development work in another country as they study. Students and lecturers have travelled for this purpose to Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Nepal, Vanuatu and other countries.

Relationship with ADRA

Students benefit from the close relationship between Avondale and ADRA Australia. Humanitarian service has become a well-respected part of Adventist endeavour, and Avondale’s IPDS graduates are crucial to ADRA’s global work.

Darin Roberts, an IPDS graduate of 2000, is Program Manager for International Programs, ADRA Australia, having previously administered ADRA programs in Sudan, Angola and Solomon Islands. He is responsible for ADRA’s partnership programs in Papua New Guinea in cooperation with the development and aid organisations of other churches. Programs aimed at building capacity in the local people include upskilling of teachers and nurses, HIV testing, counselling and training in HIV awareness, training personnel to advocate on the issue of violence against women, and training government officials in leadership, management skills and accountability. Darin also has a management role in ADRA Australia’s projects in Malawi, Zambia and Tanzania, including food security and agriculture projects, adult literacy programs, small business training for local community groups, and building capacity in community organisations to represent their needs to government.

 

Ashleigh Finlay, who graduated in 2008, is ADRA Australia’s Program Officer for Emergency Management, training key people in disaster preparedness and response, and helping to coordinate information when disasters strike. In 2009 she went to Sumatra to help coordinate ADRA’s response to the earthquake in Padang. She is currently training trainers in the Pacific Islands for disaster preparedness and risk reduction.

Brayden Howie, who graduated in 2001, is Program Director in the ADRA Asia Regional Office. Karmen Trajkov (graduate of 2003) is Program Manager for ADRA Laos. Stephen Tasker (graduate of 2006) has been Program Manager for ADRA Myanmar (formerly Burma), and is currently under appointment as the Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands Program Officer for Baptist World Aid Australia. Cameron Reid (graduate of 2006) worked with ADRA Pakistan and ADRA Sudan, and is currently with the international program at ADRA Australia. Charlene Luzuk, who graduated in 2007, is Program Manager for ADRA Solomon Islands.

Three recent Avondale graduates are currently employed in 2-year internships with ADRA: Carly Fletcher in Mongolia, Krystle Praestiin in Malawi and Beryl Hartmann in Nepal. Interns gain first-hand experience of ADRA project management, including proposal writing, budgeting, fundraising and direct participation in projects.

 

Mongolia

Carly Fletcher has been involved in the ADRA Australia funded project Acting on Gender-violence Awareness through Peer Education (AGAPE), teaching young people about violence and how to deal with conflict situations. She has also run English training sessions for school children in the remote rural areas of Zavkhan province of north-west Mongolia. “I have seen many positive results during my time with ADRA Mongolia,” she writes: “poor people able to start a small business as a result of a small loan, gardens growing in the desert, single mothers able to support their families because of a vocational skill they have learnt, young people able to solve conflicts in a way that does not involve violence, and more.” One lady’s story stood out for her in particular. “In Zavkhan province,” she writes, “we visited this very poor woman in her ger (traditional felt house). Her husband had become sick and unable to work, which meant that she had to try and support their family, including six children. However, she had been given the opportunity to attend an ADRA vocational skills training course and had learnt to make felt products. Now she is able to support her sick husband and her children by making and selling these products. It was wonderful,” Carly writes, “to see the joy in her eyes and the hope she now has for the future.”

 

 

Nepal

Beryl Hartmann in Kathmandu has been partially involved with an ADRA Australia funded project providing leadership and good governance training to local district officials and community groups, particularly women. The trainees then create “challenge projects” addressing a need in their communities, such as a bridge or community farming, fundraising and locating resources and support from different sources. “I have seen amazing accomplishments the communities have succeeded in,” Beryl writes. “One woman saw the need of a proper bridge over a creek after her child fell from a narrow plank being used. After mobilising the community to raise funds, her cooperative group managed to build not only a bridge but also a picnic area by the river, a paved road connecting nearby villages and a new temple area.” Beryl has completed the gruelling 14-day trek to the Everest Base Camp to raise funds for the leadership project in which she has been involved. It is rewarding, she says, to be able to facilitate improvements in people’s lives by “helping people help themselves.”

 

 

Malawi

In Malawi, Krystle Praestiin is coordinating fundraising to provide clean, accessible water for villages, including one whose only source of water had been a contaminated river more than a kilometre away. Avondale students raised $13,000 towards this project, which has so far provided boreholes for two villages. The new wells reduce disease and give many women time to go to work, start their own businesses, attend adult literacy classes or village savings and loans groups, instead of spending up to three hours per day carrying water. Krystle hopes to raise $56,000 to construct and rehabilitate boreholes in six more villages.

Krystle has also been involved in an ADRA Australia project focused on capacity building of civil society groups as well as food security, health and nutrition. In this project she has seen village savings and loans groups working together to save money, enabling women to borrow to start small businesses and improve their households. Krystle has also been involved in an ADRA Sweden project focusing on gender equality, women’s empowerment, health, nutrition and food security. “These projects,” Krystle writes, “give communities a sense of pride and achievement and empower them to take actions to improve their own situations. I see the value of these activities every time I look at the smiles and glow of pride in people’s eyes.”

Other Avondale IPDS graduates are employed with Asian Aid, Compassion, CARE and AusAID (the Australian government’s aid agency).

In preparing students to engage professionally in the quest for social justice, the IPDS program has become a proud part of Avondale’s culture of service and altruism.