Avondale advocates

Alum speak up on global poverty

Three Avondale alumni have spoken up on behalf of the world’s impoverished as part of Micah Challenge’s Voices for Justice in Canberra, September 15-18.

More than 280 Christians from across Australia—representing 20 aid and development agencies, including the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) Australia—spent two days training, worshipping and networking before spending a further two days at Parliament House meeting with parliamentarians.

“Many of the causes of poverty are systemic, part of the way society works, and mere charity and even development are not always sufficient to overcome that,” says alumnus Harwood Lockton, advocacy officer for ADRA Australia and a member of the Micah Challenge campaign steering group. “Political systems need to be nudged to do the right thing and this can be done through advocacy.”

In what has become an annual advocacy event, the focus of this year’s Voices for Justice was the progress and work yet to be done in meeting the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

“A lot of people aren’t aware that significant progress has been made in the past 20 years towards lifting people out of poverty,” says Micah Challenge’s national coordinator John Beckett. “The international goal to halve the proportion of people without access to clean drinking water has already been reached ahead of schedule, and this is just one example of the difference we can make when people all over the world work together for a common cause.”

Avondale’s Young Alumna of the Year Joanna Darby appreciated the opportunity to network with other Christians who are passionate about justice issues. “For so long, I have spoken about justice to various groups within the Seventh-day Adventist Church to raise awareness of these issues and God’s heart for the poor, but this was a chance to actually speak up as Proverbs 31:8, 9 urges—to speak up for the poor and helpless and see that they get justice,” she says.

Joanna says her participation at Voices for Justice has changed her perceptions of how progress can be made to combat poverty around the world. “I have realised how easy it is to approach people like my local elected representatives on important issues,” she says. “This experience has challenged me to engage more with these issues beyond our church, as well as reignited my passion for prioritising justice as a fundamental part of our Adventist identity.”

The small “lobby groups” formed among the Voices for Justice participants met with members of the House of Representatives and senators from all political parties and many received positive responses, with dozens of parliamentarians adding their faces to a jigsaw puzzle committing them to continue to work toward fully achieving the Millennium Development Goals and improving and increasing Australia’s international aid commitments.

“Many of the politicians welcome the Micah advocates and have frequently indicated that this lobbying on behalf of others is effective in shaping Australia’s national response to global poverty,” says Harwood. “And, as Christians, that is something about which we should be passionate.”