Micah Challenge Australia Blog

 

The Micah Challenge blog is a space for discussion and debate about the issues of global poverty, faith, advocacy and justice and the Millennium Development Goals. This blog aims to provoke thought and challenge you to learn more about the issues discussed. We welcome your comments.

Micah Challenge is a global campaign of Christians speaking out against poverty and injustice. Click here to visit the Micah Challenge website.

  • A Hollywood blockbuster with a twist...

    Posted by Lucy

    24 April, 2012

    I had a great idea for a movie. A political drama. George Clooney or Matt Damon as male lead, and there’s a young, feisty, female journalist who gets caught up in it all. The opening scene spans a meeting room high up in skyscraper land, with a marble round table, jugs of iced water and leaders of a big global development bank. “Gentlemen, you should be proud,” says the silver fox, “This policy forges the path to education for the poorest of the poor.” Clapping and shaking hands all around. Cut to the brilliant green and brown of a remote village high up in Indonesia’s mountains. Children, gorgeous and laughing, walk kilometres of terrain to a tiny, one-teacher school. The camera pans back to the village, where a little girl stares wistfully after them. The shot widens to show that she has clubfoot; her feet twisted inwards. As opening credits scroll on, we know there is no way she could walk to school… I haven’t worked out the complete script yet, but there are plenty of true stories to draw from. One billion... read more

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  • I Love Needles

    Posted by Simon

    30 March, 2012

    It’s not often that you get to hear from a person in TIME Magazine’s Top 100 Most Influential People. Sure, we hear speeches from Barack Obama on TV all the time and Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook is used daily by the majority of people in the developed world. But last week, 200 plus people and myself attended a Child Survival Forum hosted by RESULTS International, primarily to hear Dr Seth Berkley speak, a 2009 member of TIME’s top 100 club. Who, you might say? A guy who, quite simply, loves needles… Dr Berkley is the CEO of the GAVI Alliance, a multilateral organisation that has given life-saving vaccinations to over 319 million children in the past ten years, saving an estimated 5.5 million children’s lives. Impressed now? Globally, the GAVI Alliance ranks as one of the most effective and cost-efficient multilateral organisations working to eradicate poverty. The GAVI Alliance is a unique public-private partnership that focuses solely on immunising children in developing countries against deadly diseases such as pneumonia,... read more

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  • How lamentation turned me from apathy

    Posted by David

    28 February, 2012

    “God whispers to us in our pleasures... but shouts in our pain: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” - C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain. During the past week of PrayACT, we have dwelt on the importance of prayer as action. As our week of focused prayer for the MDGs comes to a close, I have been reflecting on the last prayer of Jesus as he hung on the cross:
 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mark 15:34). This prayer was Jesus’ lamentation – the cry that prefaced the overthrow of sin forever. It was this act of lamentation that opened the way for God’s hope for a new humanity and God’s reign of justice in our world. Generations before this moment, the prophets too, lamented the actions of the people of Israel – a cry of grief at consistent injustice. God met these cries of injustice with the sending of Jesus. Emmanuel; God with us – justice to be embodied and displayed amongst us. Allow me to share a story from my own walk... read more

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  • What will Mr. Rudd's resignation mean for the poor?

    Posted by John

    23 February, 2012

    My answer to the question posed in the title of this blog is simple – I don’t know yet. The obvious reaction to Mr. Rudd’s announcement for us here in the Micah Challenge office is to get focused on what this will mean for the campaign. How should we respond? What strategies should we develop to ensure Australia’s commitments to the world's poorest people are maintained and strengthened? I was in that space this morning when I read something from a Pastor friend of mine who said this on Facebook: ‘"@twitter reveals the dysfunctional heart of Aussies in response to the crisis. A better response? Pray with me 4 @JuliaGillard & @KRuddMP" It was a timely reminder for me. The focus for Micah Challenge this week has been our PrayACT campaign. We have been encouraging people to focus on prayer as the primary action we should take as Christian advocates for the poor. No doubt we will also spend time over the coming days, weeks and months thinking about how we can best use our voices on behalf of the poor in this... read more

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