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Issue 13, August 2016

In this edition:

Encounter Thailand

NODC Meeting Points

Tropical Cyclone Winston, Fiji

Quarterly Statistics 2015—16

National Council Office St Vincent de Paul Society Australia

PO Box 243, Deakin West, ACT 2600.

Ph: 02 6202 1200 Fax: 02 6285 0159 www.vinnies.org.au

Encounter Thailand

Encounter Thailand was a trip of a lifetime. Participants were

engaged in overseas development works including Twin-

ning, projects, Conference work and Assist a Student. We

were welcomed into the world of remarkable Vincentians

who lived the Gospels in the works they do in a developing

nation. Travelling from as far as the Myannmar, Laos and

Thailand border in the north to Chiang Mai and then

Bangkok and Pattaya in the south the consistent message

and Vincentian spirit was evident throughout.

The appreciation of the resources we have at our fingertips

in our wonderful nation hit home when travelling amongst

some of the poorest areas of the

world in Thailand.

The many things we participated

in included visiting many self-help projects, meeting with many

conferences and doing home visitation with them, we presented

assist-a-students funds from Australia to recipients, interacted with

children (played soccer, sung and danced). A truly humbling

experience which will be cherished forever.

Matthew Kirkham

Encounter Thailand Group Leader

Welcome to this edition of the Overseas Development Newsletter where we have a lot to cover. It has been some time since the last Newsletter, so in this edition we will look at an Encounter Trip in 2014, many Overseas Development items for 2015 and disaster assistance to Fiji, in their time of need, in early 2016.

We will begin this Newsletter with a report from National Project Coordinator, Matthew Kirkham, who was also the Encounter Group Leader for a team that went to Thailand in September 2014.

Matthew presenting the assisted student with

his certificate at Lampang, northern Thailand

on St Vincent de Paul Feast Day.

Encounter team member, Cassie,

with students who receive AAS in

a very isolated area of Chantaburi.

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Points from NODC Meetings Friday, 28 November 2014 AAS and Overseas Development project allocations were decided for 2015. Due to our policy on projects that support the greater “community” rather than individuals, a

final decision was made that single family Housing Projects will no longer be supported. A project to support the Kiribati National Council was approved by NODC and supported by

Victoria. Decision: as per NODC and International Twinning Commission Policies and Proce-

dures, Twinning funds must be transferred from National Council to National Council, there-fore Twinning, Projects and AAS funds for PNG and East Timor may no longer be sent as neither country has a National Council.

Two major points from PANASCO 8 were discussed: 10 Years for Twinning - from January 1, 2015 start 10 year policy with 5 year review.

Communication – the use of one central address for communication, the State Council address, began in some states and this has been going very well.

NODC finished our meeting with recognition of and thanks to NODC member, John O’Brien, for his contributions over the years and welcomed new National Projects Coordinator, Matthew Kirkham.

Saturday, 28 February 2015 This NODC meeting centred around review and update of the NODC Policies and

Procedures to ensure compliance with Australian Government requirements and the Overseas Aid Gift Deduction Scheme.

A receipt will be given for AAS, but it will be a National receipt. National receipt books for AAS can be obtained from Donna in the National Council office.

Friday 6 November 2015 (State and Territory OD Chairpersons Mtg, Saturday 7 November 2015. State and Territory Project Coordinators Mtg, Sunday 8 November 2015 - minutes of these meetings have been forwarded to the States and Territories)

OAGDS has been obtained and the NODC discussed what that means and how we progress:

We are now registered in every state for fundraising, which means that states can now issue tax deductible receipts to public donors on the Society’s behalf for funds raised to go overseas.

NODC Policies and Procedures have been submitted to DFAT and need to be adhered to.

With regard to projects, we need to know the difference between welfare, relief and development projects. We need to have spent at least one preferably two years solely on development projects.

All funds going overseas must come through the National Council of Australia.

The Twinning program with PNG was reviewed and a plan forward has been made with the

creation of the PNG working group. A report needs to be tabled from this working group at the March 2016 National Council Meeting.

Saturday, 27 February 2016 The Central Address System for Twinning communication is working slowly but well. There

have been many emails so far back and forth.

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Cont’d Status Checks to Twinned Conferences: some State and Territory Overseas Administrators

and Twinning Coordinators want to do the task of Status Checks. The NODC approved this

process. The National Overseas Development Advisor must be copied.

NODC drafted a letter to the Chairperson’s stating that SVDP does not assist with

Humanitarian Aid and that we are not registered as an Aid organisation.

Changes to NODC members:

Tony Muir will finish as Chairperson of the NODC in July 2016

Celina Lai will step up as NODC Chairperson

WA Roadshow 2016: Bruce Phillip and Bob Burns in WA want to hold a Roadshow in

September 2016 in three regions. A team of two NODC members will go and present.

The next NODC meeting with be held on Sunday, 16 October 2016 following the next State and

Territory OD Chairpersons meeting to be held on Saturday, 15 October 2016.

From the NODC Policies and Procedures

DFAT OADGS Guidelines CRITERION 5 Activities are focused on development/relief covering at least one year In November 2015 pages 19-21, Criterion 5 of the DFAT OADGS Guidelines, were added to the NODC Policies and Procedures. Here are two topics from those guidelines:

What is meant by development? Development seeks to improve the conditions of communities in a sustainable way. It is based on working with communities, rather than for or on behalf of communities. For example, if a community needs a well dug, they might ask an organisation to dig them a well. The development approach would say ‘No. Instead, we'll help you dig your well, first by looking at all the things that you as a community can do to dig the well. Someone outside of the community will only do those things on the list that can’t be done by the community.’ The result would be that the community will have its well, more skilled members, and a sense of its own abil-ity, not disability.

Development is a process where a community of people work together to break the cycle of poverty and de-pendence so that their fundamental needs are met and the quality of their lives is enhanced. Development activities seek to address the root causes of the need identified and in doing so, make a contribution to re-ducing that need in the long term. To paraphrase a well-known saying, another example of development would be teaching a community how to fish, so that they can feed themselves, rather than feeding the com-munity for a day.

Three principles key to development are: Participation, Fair Distribution and Sustainability

What is meant by relief?

Relief means the provision of basic support to people in emergency situations, for example, natural phenom-ena such as earthquakes, or chronic disasters such as famine or conflict. In these emergency situations, direct assistance (such as distribution of clothing, food, seeds and tools, temporary housing) may be provid-ed as part of a short term relief response.

Relief measures are usually temporary and are directed at providing life-sustaining assistance or short-term recovery assistance aimed at putting people ‘back on their feet’. Relief is provided to groups of people, such as communities, directly affected by a disaster.

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The National President of Cambodia, Br Phan Bora, sends us this message:

“Dear National Council of Australia and donors to the Assist a Student program, we would

like to send you this drawing from student Heng Ly Houy, who dreams of being a teacher,

and photo of the Koh Pene Island students to thank you so much for your support.”

Assist a Student

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On the morning of Monday 22 February 2016 I wrote to the National President of Fiji:

“Ben and SSVP Fiji Team,

We have been holding our breath and praying for you all weekend with regard to the cyclone and hope to make contact as soon as power/emails are restored to see what you may need and how we can help.

With much love and friendship,

Kimberly Watson

National Council of Australia”

SSVP Fiji National President, Ben Hazelman, is directly affected by Cyclone Winston and he replies:

“Thank you Kim, well of the 63 years of my life, I have never experienced anything like this. First I receive a call from my brother on the other main island to tell me that my house was blown away, then with the whole country in total black out, all you can hear the strong winds whistling and throwing everything around outside, then this huge thump on my roof and using a torchlight, I find that this 20 metre x 60 cm diameter palm tree laying on my roof with water leaking everywhere. Have seen this happen to everyone else, but never dream this would happen to me only two months from retirement.”

An appeal goes up on the St Vincent de Paul Society website and very soon nearly $35,000.00AUD is raised. Here is Ben’s report on the initial funds sent through.

“As Soon as we received the funds, we allocated majority of it to the western side of the main Island, Rakiraki, Ba, and the surrounding interior areas and got them to help out with immediate needs like drinking water, mattresses, sheets, Kerosene stoves, mosquito nets and basic food Items, and because, all other NGOs and government, and disaster management were assisting those accessible, the SVDP were asked to find their way to those affected badly by the disaster, in the remotest areas, and were the worst hit. Our team also received SOS calls from the islands where they took water tanks, beddings (sheets, mattresses, pillows, blankets, and basic food items, and from the reports received, even basic food crops were uprooted and damaged, to this Island. Because the school was so badly damaged and all school books were damaged, they were supplied with exercise books, bags, pens, and any basic school need we could assist them with. Then we received another call from a catholic school, with a roll of about 800, which was completely damaged, to the primary, secondary and the boarding hostels, and because the kids needed to get back ASAP, as they were using tents and with trees blown away there was no shelter from the sun so they were encountering direct heat, so we allocated, the balance of the funds received.”

Assisting with Tropical Cyclone Winston in Fiji

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Statistics Q1 - Q4, 2015

CURRENT AUSTRALIAN TWINS BY COUNTRY

Bangladesh 50

Cambodia 23

Chuuk Islands (formerly East Caroline) 1

Fiji 24

India 1367

Indonesia 269

Kiribati 1

Myanmar 70

Pakistan 12

Philippines 265

Solomon Islands 1

Sri Lanka 5

Thailand 133

Vanuatu 9

Total Twinning Partnerships: 2,230

Total AUD in Twinning Contributions (for 2015): $713,600.00

($80.00 per twin, per quarter)

PROJECTS (for 2015)

Cambodia $ 12,600.00

India $ 4,088.00

Myanmar $ 2,000.00

Pakistan $ 110,694.00

Sri Lanka $ 7,000.00

Thailand $ 8,330.00

Total AUD in Projects: $ 144,712.00

ASSIST A STUDENT (students sponsored 2015)

Cambodia 400

Bangladesh (new to the program) 134

Fiji 677

Pakistan 185

Indonesia 500

India 1521

Sri Lanka 885

Philippines 1152

Vanuatu 210

Thailand 900

Total Students Sponsored: 6,564