WINNER - SI Joondalup - East Timor '24
Report ID: 20240607102648

SI Joondalup for their East Timor '24 project, a project focused on Leadership, Skills Transfer and building partnerships. 

SI Joondalup had for many years built up a professional association with two young academics from Timor Leste (previously East Timor).   SI Joondalup funded Pascoela Barreto and Maria Guterres, both women had been working in their chosen professions for 10 years,  The women were previous scholars recipeients from SI Joondalup.

Pascoela Barreto is a leading educationalist in women's cancer in Timor Leste, where there are no mammograms, radiation or chemotherapy with the only option open for women with cancer being surgery after which they are sent home. While in Western Australia Pascoela visited hospitals, hospices, breast cancer clinics and medical research institutes. This resulted in numerous connections and professional support including a number of medical professionals offering to travel to Timor Leste to assess where help could be provided.

Maria Guterres manages the main library in Dili and was faced with lack of literacy in adults and children, limited books, at least four major languages spoken and many dialects. Maria was able to visit a number of local libraries, The State Library of Western Australia, The WA Museum and the Noongar Boodjar Language centre. Funding from the Brilliant Futures Fund was sourced to help undertake this project.

Read a more details report on the project at the Brilliant Futures fund project page Brilliant Futures Fund 

Image is of Pascoela Barreto and Maria Guterres with Professor Andrew redfern at The Harry Perkins medical research Institute

HIGHLY COMMENDED - SI Moreton North - SIMNI 2024 Shining  A Light on Invisible Illnesses (SAL) Project 
Report ID: 20241207105744

SI Moreton North project focused on SDG 3 (Ensure healthy lives and promote well being for all at all ages). 

Project aim was to remove the sitgma associated with invisible illnesses.  This  includes people living with an acquired brain injury and other related mental health and wellbeing issues and their carers. They wanted to promote a greater awareness and understanding of the challenges that they face on a daily basis.

The project paid particular attention to Vetfordia to support Veterinarians (who have the highest suicide rate of any profession) and organisations like SMEAC Inc. that support Veterans who live with PSTD. The club had many community partners, including significantly Civic Solutions. All worked together to reach across their community capturing  many demographic groups.

WINNER: SI Melaka - Personal Safety for Children Project 
ID 20241203084029

SI Melaka project addressed SDG 5(Gender Equality) Target 5.2.  The goal was to educate young children about their right to personal safety and bodily autonomy. With an aim to empower children with the knowledge and tools to recognize boundaries, understand the importance of consent, and speak up if they feel unsafe. Additionally, the project which consisted of a series of workshops which seek to raise public awareness about the importance of teaching children these fundamental rights, fostering a community that supports and protects children.

The project was adopted from SI Club of Bangsar which had been conducting the project in English for many years; however, SI Melaka decided to duplicate this programme in Chinese to cater to the large Chinese-speaking community in Melaka. This project impacted 24 women and 75 girls

HIGHLY COMMENDED - SI Moreton North -2024 Maprik Papua New Guinea - 16 Days of Activism Forum Orange the World 
Report ID: 20241219061913

SI Moreton North project focused on SDG 5 (Gender Equality) Target 5.1.

Family violence in Papua New Guinea is an emergency. Women across the country are enduring brutal attacks. Officials neglect survivors’ needs for safety, services and justice. SIMNI Members in Maprik wanted to raise awareness and participate in the global Orange the World and 16 Days of Activism to Eliminate all Forms of Violence by organising a community forum. This was a continuation of the successful 16 Days of Activism organised in 2023.

This year they held a community forum with keynote speakers raising awareness of family and domestic violence and sexual assaults. The forum was attended by the Mayor, a Community Development Officer. Several people attended including young men and everyone was encouraged to wear orange. Local Church Groups, Universities, Schools and Businesses, Government Official Law Enforcement Officers, and Nana Kundi Crisis Centre Support Workers were part of the organising committee.

Number of women helped: 100, No of Girls helped 30 and others 55

WINNER - SI Adelaide, Fix Child Support Campaign Phase 2 
Report ID: 20250104120524

This advocacy report addressed SDG 1 (End Poverty) Target 1.4

1 in 6 Australian children currently live in poverty; many in Single Mother families (SMF) The issue of Child Support (much of which is unpaid) within Australia, has deep impact on SMF and their Children. Unpaid Child Support currently stands at $1.7BILLION owed to 500,000 Australian children. https://fixchildsupport.com.au/  

In 2022, SI Adelaide became acutely aware of the child support crisis in Australia during their 2022 advocacy work for Single Parent Payments. While successfully campaigning to extend these payments until children turn 14 (instead of 8), they uncovered deeply troubling systemic failures in Australia's child support scheme and the multiple burdens this puts on single mother families

In their Phase 2 campaign, they sought to separate Child Support from Family Tax Benefits, preventing financial manipulation of vulnerable families.

Next, they advocated for involving survivors of financial abuse in redesigning the system to close exploited loopholes. Thirdly, they pushed for centralizing all child support collection through the Australian Taxation Office to ensure consistent enforcement and making the government responsible for collecting unpaid child support.

WINNER - SIROM  - Sustainable Food Security for Rural Communities 
Report ID: 20241223122040, 20241116075612, 20241228032353

The project addressed SDG2 and several others

SDG’s along the way. The project has taught indigenous families in 3 villages to grow vegetables and aquaponic farming . The project helped approx.130 women and 60 girls.

Goals obtained:

Empowerment of the women villagers

Generated sustainable economic activities and was able to generate income for the beneficiaries as they are also paid a daily wage for their services.

Empowered to sell their produce/ products and improve entrepreneurship. Sales and earnings were monitored.

Housewives, are now successful farmers who have become breadwinners of their families and can independently improve their families’ farms and livelihoods.

For the girls who did not complete their formal schooling, the project gave them an opportunity to learn new skills and expose them to entrepreneurship.

HIGHLY COMMENDED - SI Moreton North - 2024 Seeds of Friendship Darapap Village PNG
Report ID: 20241217074323

Seeds of Friendship Community Garden Project is creating an Above Ground Community Garden to combat food insecurity caused by rising sea levels. we’re working with local women to grow vegetables for sustenance and income . Running through 2024 and beyond, This initiative fosters food security, economic empowerment, and resilience for the community with plans to include a solar powered desalination plant through a separate funding proposal. So far 87 poles have been installed with construction of the garden platform over the tidal land to start once the remaining materials can be transported to the build site. The existing 120 vegetable gardens in the village are thriving and continue to provide each household in the village with food and excess produce to sell and trade. 400 women and 75 girls have benefitted. This project was enabled by a $10,000 grant from the Brilliant Futures Fund.   Read more on this project here https://www.siseap.org/projects/federation-project-new.html

HIGHLY COMMENDED: SI Moreton North - PNG Disaster recovery after the earthquake.
Report ID: 20241222111750

SI Moreton North members who reside in Maprik PNG, undertook this project is response response to the 2024 6.9-magnitude earthquake in Maprik, East Sepik Province, our SI Club collaborated with local government on a year-long disaster relief initiative, assessing impacted families, delivering emergency supplies, and distributing relief payments to enhance community resilience and mitigate long-term impacts.

WINNER: SI Penang - Rehabilitation of Abandoned Shrimp Ponds to Seaweed Farming for Climate Mitigation, Food Security, Education and Local Community Development
ID 20240910085954

This environment project promoted ecosystem-based mechanisms to help a coastal community in the northern coast of Malaysia. The objective is to help the environment and the community plan and manage their marine resources effectively. This community is living in an environment which is heavily challenged by climate change such as unpredictable rainfall and storm surges and negative side-effects of shrimp farming such as habitat loss and degradation to land and water. This project repurposes abandoned shrimp ponds which are no longer functional into sustainable seaweed farms. Seaweed has the ability to sequester carbon dioxide and restore contaminated seawater thus contributing to climate mitigation efforts. This project focuses on the local women and local fishermen who are affected by lack of economic opportunities and lack of productive farming infrastructure. Seaweed cultivation has shown to conserve marine resources in affected areas using nature-based solution and encouraging a shift to sustainable seaweed farming that empowers farmers and improves livelihoods.

HIGHLY COMMENDED: SI Waimea - Repair with Flair
ID 20240901052855

The target audience was 7 - 13 year students, who were given the challenge to repair, reuse, upcycle, reinvent unword or discarded clothing.  Club members were approached by college aged students at their 2023 event called "The Clothing Revolution" to hold a similar event the next year 2024 and target specifically for their age group. After this approach the club decided to hold another event specifically for college aged students, years 7 to 13 to raise awareness about their clothing and challenge them to repair, reuse, upcycle, reinvent unworn or discarded clothing culminating in a fashion parade and offering prizes for different categories. They contacted their sister club; contacted all the colleges and schools in the Nelson/Tasman area and collaborated with the Nelson/Tasman climate forum to run the event as part of their Climate Action week. This project fits with SDG 12 Target 12.5 By 2030, substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse.

The image depicts the students modeling their upscaled used clothes