Amnesty International Australia
There are
countless human rights abuses in the world, violations and atrocities, but the
human rights movement has developed to oppose them. Worldwide, Amnesty
International is recognised as the global defender of human rights. |
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Amnesty International is here to
investigate, document, campaign and expose human rights abuses. They pressure
governments to abide by their responsibilities under the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights which every member state of the United Nations has accepted and
signed. Amnesty International is involved in a wide range of human rights
education, and they encourage businesses to support and respect human rights.
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They work on the ground researching, in
often dangerous conditions, to provide the media, governments, the United
Nations and the over one million members worldwide with the accurate information
needed to take effective action.
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Amnesty International received the Nobel
Peace Prize for their contribution to 'securing the ground for freedom, for
justice and thereby for peace in the world.'
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What's more important is the concrete
difference Amnesty International is making in the lives of people who are
oppressed, harmed or imprisoned unjustly, simply for who they are or what they
believe.
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Amnesty International is detecting some
improvements in the big picture of human rights: the number of people held as
prisoners of conscience has fallen significantly and there's a global trend away
from the death penalty. But successes for Amnesty International often happen one
at a time.
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Amnesty International is totally self
funded. To preserve complete independence they do not accept any government or
political funding for their work in documenting and campaigning against human
rights violations. That way, they're free to criticise with objectivity and
impartiality. This means they depend entirely on the financial contributions of
people who believe in what they do.
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Child Wise, ECPAT
Child Wise is committed to
ending the sexual exploitation of children worldwide. Our lobbying and advocacy
efforts focus on encouraging governments to strengthen the legal framework in
support of children, and on affirming children's rights. Our programs include:
- Child Wise Tourism - working with the tourism industry to adopt strategies
to protect children in tourism;
- Choose With Care - designed to assist children's organisations to build safe
environments; and
- Travel With Care - informing Australian travel agents and travellers about
Australia's child sex tourism legislation.
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Child Wise is part of the global ECPAT (End
Child Prostitution And Pornography) movement, which is based in over 70
countries. Child Wise is committed to preventing the sexual exploitation of
children in tourism destinations. We work in Australia and overseas with a
particular emphasis on South East Asia and the Pacific.
Our strategies
to end child sex tourism are multiple. They include raising awareness about
child sex tourism, training of police, government and tourism industry
professionals, community and students. We develop training materials and
curriculum. We work closely with governments and encourage them to introduce
child protection laws and to dedicate more resources to addressing the
underlying causes of child sexual exploitation such as poverty and
discrimination. We advocate for more police resources to countries where child
sex tourism is evident. We work very closely with the travel industry and assist
them to develop child safe codes of conduct and practices.
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Child Wise actively encourages the public to
take action and report child sex crimes wherever they travel. In recognition of
its effective actions to combat child sex tourism, Child Wise has received
several Human Rights Awards.
For more information you can visit the
Child Wise web site
http://www.childwise.net/
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Médecins Sans Frontières
In Thailand, Médecins
Sans Frontières is working with Burmese refugees in camps along the Thai-Burma
border, providing health care, clean water and sanitation.
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MSF has been working with Burmese refugees
in Thailand since 1978. The tensions imposed on the displaced people, the heavy
psychological pressures they undergo, together with the health risk resulting
from both the environment and the modified health behaviour require continuous
monitoring and close assistance. MSF aims to control the negative impacts on
refugees’ health generated by the instability of the camps, which can include
serious epidemics of cholera and measles and other health
problems.
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MSF currently works in two refugee camps
along the Border assisting almost half of the 125,000 refugees in camps in
Thailand. In Tham Hin camp there is extremely high density of living (only 15
square meters per person) one factor which resulted in an outbreak of typhoid
fever in May 2001, at the same time as an outbreak of dengue
fever.
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Continued insecurity on the border is
alarming and contributes to the overall climate of danger and helplessness
amongst the refugees. MSF monitors the situation closely and is active in
ensuring the international community is aware of issues such as non-voluntary
repatriation and deteriorating living conditions.
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It is for situations such as this - the
combination of pioneering, hands-on medical assistance and a principled,
critical approach to aid work that MSF was awarded the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize.
More than such high-level recognition, however, every MSF volunteer will tell
you that the greatest reward is to be able to give back a future to a child,
woman or man who has been on the brink of death. Around the world, that is what
MSF teams are doing every day.
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Plan
As a child centred development organisation,
Plan is committed to working with communities in the developing world to
implement development projects that directly benefit children living in poor and
disadvantaged communities.
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Plan's Early Childhood Care and Development
(ECCD) projects aim to give children adequate care and creative opportunities
for growth and development during early childhood thus improving the likelihood
of them being able to benefit from later education and other social services.
This and other ECCD projects will allow children to become productive and
healthy citizens. The early years of age (0-8) are critical in the formation of
intelligence, personality and social behaviour. Therefore attention to ECCD is
essential for children to survive, to be aware, to learn, and to be empowered.
The immediate and long-term benefits of ECCD to children, families and
communities are immense.
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The major objective of this PLAN project is
to improve the quality and accessibility of ECCD in poor communities in three
Indonesian Provinces, East Nusa Tenggara, South Sulawesi and East Java. The
direct beneficiaries include all pre-school aged children and their families
(particularly mothers and caregivers) in these three provinces. Funds are
required for the construction of ECCD Centre buildings, for teacher training,
and for the development of resource materials.
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The
Fred Hollows Foundation
Did you know that every 5 seconds one
person in our world goes blind – yet 80% of the world’s blindness is avoidable!
The Fred Hollows Foundation (FHF) has been working with local blindness
prevention agencies in more than 26 countries since 1992 to establish mechanisms
to treat and prevent avoidable blindness. Their goal is to help develop the
capacity of local agencies, to set up the infrastructure and provide the
training that gives disadvantaged communities independence and access to
affordable eye care - especially for cataracts.
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Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in
the SE Asian region. In keeping with Fred’s vision that ‘everyone, everywhere,
should have access to the best that modern medical knowledge can provide’, FHF
expanded its program to include Cambodia in 1998. With a population of
approximately 12 million people and a prevalence of blindness of 1.2%, it is
estimated that there are 144,000 blind people living in Cambodia. The main cause
of blindness is cataract (>60%) and other diseases such as glaucoma and
pterygium, with 80-90% of these causes preventable and
curable.
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The program takes a comprehensive approach
to addressing the particular needs of eye care health in Cambodia - not only the
need for continued training for doctors and nurses, but also human resources
development, appropriate technology and infrastructure, and community awareness
and screening programs. Your contribution will help support Basic Eye Doctors
(BEDs) and Basic Eye Nurses (BENs) to further develop their surgical skills as
well as community outreach skills. The program also places emphasis on improving
access to eye care for people living in rural and disadvantaged
areas.
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Being blind in a developing country puts
enormous strain on the family’s already meagre resources, particularly for rural
and remote populations. These people can no longer contribute to work in the
fields, cannot get around without assistance and have an increased likelihood of
dying within four years of becoming blind. Therefore, FHF support extends beyond
Phnom Penh, with 3 eye units in the rural areas of Neak Loeung, Kompong Chhnang
and Kompong Thom.
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WWF
- TRAFFIC
 Wildlife Trade - A serious
Business
Wildlife trade, along with habitat destruction, poses the
most significant threat to the survival of viable animal and plant populations
in the wild. This global situation is brought sharply into focus in regions such
as Southeast Asia, where illegal or unsustainable trade has already begun taking
its toll on the region's wildlife.
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Thailand, Lao PDR, Cambodia and Vietnam have
some of the last remaining primary habitats on the Asian continent. Tropical
forests and wetlands are home to various endangered species of fauna, such as
tiger, Asian elephant, leopard and Siamese crocodile, and a host of others - as
well as valuable timber and medicinal plants.
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Economic expansion in China and other East
Asian countries has increased the demand for wild plants and animals and their
by-products. In turn, the pressures of supply are brought to bear on nearby
countries with more abundant habitats, such as Lao PDR and Cambodia, and those
with "trade corridor" connections, such as Vietnam and
Thailand.
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TRAFFIC, a joint program of WWF and IUCN -
the World Conservation Union, is working to mitigate the threat of unsustainable
and illegal trade to these "high demand" species and the ecosystems they
support. In Indochina, this entails working with governments to strengthen
wildlife legislation, building enforcement capacity amongst field-based law
enforcement staff, to making local people aware that over-consumption can lead
to the extinction of species which, in turn, will impact on their livelihood.
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Greenpeace
The number of environmental challenges
the world is facing has never been greater. It is clearer than ever before that
these complex problems need international solutions. With a network of offices
in over 40 countries, Greenpeace is one of the few organizations able to think
globally, yet act locally.
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In countries such as India, the environment
is under enormous pressure. Greenpeace is working to protect environment and
human health from toxic pollution by stopping the manufacture, use and disposal
of hazardous substances.
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Right now Greenpeace is working with the
community of Bhopal, India - where in 1984 over 40 tons of lethal gas spilled
out from Union Carbide’s pesticide factory. With safety systems either
malfunctioning or turned off, an area home to over half a million people, was
soon covered with a dense cloud of poisonous gas. Half of all the pregnant women
who breathed the gas aborted spontaneously. By the third day, over 8,000 people
were dead. This figure now stands at 20,000 and rising. Some 150,000 remain
chronically ill and a generation of children, born well after the disaster, face
a lifetime of bad health and poverty.
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Union Carbide has since been bought by
multinational Dow, making Dow the largest chemical company in the world. Yet
despite buying Union Carbide’s assets and liabilities, Dow has refused to accept
responsibility for the toxic legacy of Bhopal: the damaged health and ruined
prospects of survivors, the abandoned factory, the remaining stockpiles of
poison seeping out of corroding drums and the contaminated water supply. Using a
variety of tools and tactics, Greenpeace is calling for international law to be
established to hold corporations criminally and financially liable for
industrial disasters and on-going pollution. Delivering this message with
impact, making people around the world take notice, Greenpeace is forcing
change.
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WSPA - World Society for the Protection of
Animals
WSPA (The World Society for the Protection of Animals) is
an international organisation working in more than 100 countries. It exists for
the sole purpose of improving the standards of animal welfare and does so by
promoting the protection of animals through cruelty prevention and offering
relief from suffering.
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WSPA works in three key areas to defend and
to give animals throughout Asia a voice:
- Animal Rescue – rescuing innocent animals from neglect, cruelty and
abuse.
- Action Against Cruelty – campaigning and lobbying governments to alter
cruelty to and the exploitation of animals.
- Changing Hearts and Minds – educating people about mistreatment of and
disrespect for animals in order to break the cycle of cruelty.
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You can help us in our fight to improve the
standards of animal welfare throughout Asia by following these 10 Tips for the
Compassionate Traveller:
- Don’t accept culture as an excuse for cruelty. Boycott cockfights,
bullfights, and the use of animals in religious festivals.
- Exotic meat is often a recipe for torture. Certain meats are often the
result of an excruciating death.
- Don’t visit zoos, view wildlife where it belongs – in the wild.
- Never purchase souvenirs made from animals such as skins, shell or ivory
products.
- Never pay to have your picture taken with a wild animal.
- Check your itinerary to ensure if doesn’t include activities that exploit
animals.
- Avoid animal rides where animals are not suitably cared for.
- Don’t attend animal performances. Eg dancing bears.
- Before you go on holiday, find out if there are any local animal welfare
societies that could provide emergency veterinary help if needed.
- If you witness mistreatment of animals, report the incident including
specifics such as date, time, location, and the type and number of animals
involved. Reports should be made to: local police, local tourist offices, a
local animal welfare society, WSPA. Always record what you have seen on film,
photographs or videotape are invaluable evidence, but never pay to take
them.
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CARE Australia
HIV infections in Vietnam have
been surging since the first case was reported in 1990. Current estimates say
there are around 200,000 people who are HIV positive. CARE Australia, through
its office of CARE in Vietnam, has been active in HIV/AIDS prevention and
management since the early 1990s. CARE was one of the first organisations to use
social research techniques to inform Vietnamese policy makers of the
vulnerability to HIV/AIDS.
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CARE staff have worked amongst injecting
drug users, commercial sex workers and mobile populations to alert them to the
danger of HIV and promote safe practices. In the mid 1990s CARE produced the
first comprehensive overview of the situation in relation to HIV/AIDS in
Vietnam. CARE interventions are known for their innovation and include the
production of Vietnam's first ever television soap opera which carried messages
about HIV to an audience of over 15 million people. In recent times CARE
HIV/AIDS projects have provided assertiveness training for thousands of
Vietnamese women and used modern social marketing techniques to promote condom
usage by men.
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Since 1998 CARE has been pioneering
work-based HIV/AIDS interventions in Vietnam. CARE is assisting workers and
managers in identifying policies and practices that inform people about
HIV/AIDS, gives them information and skills to help avoid infection, and helps
them deal with the reality of their colleagues becoming infected. The process
openly addresses the serious problem of discrimination against people living
with HIV/AIDS. The Vietnamese Government and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and
Industry have both been fully supportive of this important initiative. Intrepid
travelers visiting Vietnam's famous and beautiful Halong Bay will pass through
the northern industrial and coal mining province of Quang Ninh where Intrepid is
providing financial support to CARE to promote this innovative work-based
approach.
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| CARE believes that HIV/AIDS will only be
effectively contained and managed if calls for individuals to take
responsibility for protecting themselves and coping with HIV/AIDS are matched
with community and Government efforts to provide opportunities and conditions
for people to live fulfilling, healthy lives. |
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