From Melbourne to New York, Phnom Penh, Johannesburg and back

This being my first ever blog post, I though I’d start by telling you a little bit about myself — where I come from and why I’ve dedicated a good chunk of my life to working in the sometimes frustrating, but always inspiring, international humanitarian and development sector.

My ride through this life has been an eventful one and I guess people who knew me in my early 20s might be surprised to learn where I’ve ended up today.

I spent much of my youth playing with the Melbourne band Huxton Creepers and it’s always interesting describing what sort of band we were… I’m usually happy enough to say we were like the Hoodoo Gurus but not as famous! But we sure had our moments, tours with my heroes such as the Ramones were great times and it’s nice to have three albums worth of material to look back on. When the Creepers wound up I travelled extensively with my wife Jenny and at this time decided I’d like to really get involved in international development when I returned to Australia.

After four years of purgatory obtaining the necessary university degree I really got immersed in some big issues which started with humanitarian relief in the Horn of Africa and countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovina. I learned a lot, particularly in Bosnia where I worked with some wonderful people but also experienced the horrors of war particularly through our work with the Women of Srebrenica. To witness the strength and courage of women rebuilding their lives after they had been exposed to unspeakable violence and loss was truly inspiring.

From there the journey took me to Cambodia where I headed up the Mines Advisory Group‘s programme. I travelled around the whole country and worked with some incredibly talented Cambodian staff who made huge steps in their professional and personal growth and I’m proud to have many of them as my friends to this day.

We achieved a lot in Cambodia, there was massive satisfaction in seeing that through our collective efforts people eventually had land to farm, their children had schools to go to and clinics were established to meet their health needs.

Cambodia is still a very special place for me; this is where my son Stephen grew up and started school and my daughter Sarah took her first steps in this world.

From Cambodia the road led to New York and a job in the United Nations Secretariat. This fulfilled two dreams for me; I’d always wanted to work for the UN and since my wife and I backpacked through the States 20 years ago I’d always wanted to live in New York. These were memorable times and I still love New York!

Then it was on to Johannesburg with the UN Development Programme. I was privileged to travel to some 15 countries in Africa and to meet some of the warmest and most resilient people on the planet. It still amazes me that many people seem to believe that most Africans are lazy and are therefore in some way responsible for the terrible poverty they are trapped in.

So now I’m working with the incredibly talented team at ActionAid Australia and it’s a privilege to work for this wonderful organisation. After nearly 40 years of working with the poor we know that people don’t bring poverty on themselves. We know that poverty is the result of power inequalities and injustice. We know that the only way to change this is for governments to be accountable and transparent so that an environment is created for people to claim the human rights that most Australians take for granted.

This is one of the reasons that I’m so enthused by Project TOTO and establishing an online connection with rural communities in Tanzania. I really do believe there is so much potential for Australians to increase their understanding of the real challenges that people face on a daily basis through TOTO.

I’m excited to be connecting with our supporters through this blog. Please let me know the issues that you’re interested in hearing about and I’ll certainly do my best to engage with you as we embark on this journey and help people in poor countries claim their human rights… together.