Let’s wrap up the year with hope
Spread peace and empower lives this Christmas by helping us raise the final $70,000 of our 2024 fundraising appeal target of $350,000. Your generosity has helped ACRATH continue to offer important programs and awareness raising campaigns to support victim/survivors of human trafficking. Raising $350,000 means crucial projects, including Educating for Change and the Companionship Program, can continue.
We hope you will consider a Christmas gift to ACRATH to get us to the much needed $350,000 target. The shortfall is only $70,000, but that amount means a lot for a small organisation that receives very little government grant money and relies heavily on volunteer support around the country.
Please join the Christmas push to $70,000!
One of ACRATH’s key roles is ongoing advocacy that requires staff, planning and resources. The standout example of ACRATH’s commitment to long-term advocacy was the announcement at the federal government budget in 2023 of a pathway for victim/survivors of human trafficking onto the Support for Trafficked People Program. ACRATH started working on this in 2005 when a group of counter trafficking NGOs lead by Professor Jennifer Burn made this recommendation as part of a submission to the United Nations. In early October of this year, details of this pilot project were released and ACRATH is working to ensure trafficked people know the service is now available.
Educating for Change, an ACRATH joint project with Flinders Uni and UniSA, is another wonderful project which your donations are helping sustain and strengthen. Educating for Change is being rolled out across 21 Australian universities to equip students and staff with the skills to identify human trafficking and ways to respond to reports or concerns. The program is supported by an Advisory Committee that includes St Vincent’s Health Australia, Australian Federal Police, and the NSW Anti-Slavery Commissioner.
We know many of you are not gift buyers, or you want your Christmas spending to make a difference. Please consider donating to ACRATH for Christmas and help ensure programs continue. Or you might want to give a loved one, or friend, a donation to ACRATH as a Christmas gift. You make the donation, and we will let them know the donation has been made as a Christmas gift in their name.
One of ACRATH’s many donors and a previous Member, Sister Margaret Schofield rsm, said she became a donor after learning more about human trafficking and the various responses people can make.
“I was aware of ACRATH for some time, but after living in Bundaberg for a while and looking for a social justice issue which a parish group could address, became aware of the backpackers who came to Bundy to help on the farms, which was a local issue. I was fortunate enough to attend some ACRATH meetings where I became aware of the broader work of ACRATH and the many people involved in different ways, with people trafficked in Australia or overseas, as well as ways in which we can all help, particularly with our purchases.”
“I decided to donate to ACRATH because everyone is meant to be free, treated with dignity and respect, and ACRATH goes a long way in doing this both on the ground and advocating with government and their policies.”
ACRATH understands that many people are grappling with cost-of-living issues and cannot give more. If this is the position you are in, then we thank you for your amazing support. Including a gift to ACRATH in your Will may also be something you could consider. This is a lasting way to make a meaningful impact, empowering the victims and survivors of Modern Slavery well into the future. If you want to learn more, please contact our office at networks@acrath.org.au for more confidential information.
If you can be part of the Christmas push to $70,000
If you would like to discuss ACRATH’s work further, please call, and we can connect you with a senior ACRATH staff member.
