Palms Australia

Palms Australia is an international aid and development agency that sends skilled volunteers to share their skills with requesting communities around the world.

Palms Australia's national office is based in Sydney, although state coordinators are located throughout Australia. Established in 1961, Palms has placed volunteers with communities and organisations in Africa, Asia, the Pacific, South America and in indigenous communities in Australia.

Palms Australia supports community development by sending volunteers at the request of the receiving communities. Volunteers work alongside local people and receive an equivalent living wage.

History

Palms Australia started in Sydney in 1956 as the Paulian Association. Groups formed in around 100 communities to identify local social justice issues, reflect on values and take appropriate action to address social inequality and assist people in need.

After identifying that similar issues needed to be addressed globally, in 1961, the program was extended to communities overseas which request the placement of skilled volunteers to assist develop health, education and other facilities. Palms volunteers is places in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, including communities in Tanzania, East Timor, Papua New Guinea and indigenous Australia.

The Fair Trade Coffee Company

In 2006 Palms Australia established The Fair Trade Coffee Company, a not-for-profit, community cafe. All proceeds from the cafe go towards funding Palms' work. In 2008, The Fair Trade Coffee Company won the 'Best Coffee in Sydney' award from the independent media group. What started as a social entrepreneurial initiative to raise funds for Palms' poverty alleviating work, has now become a landmark community cafe buzzing with community initiated activities and events.

In May 2009, World Fair Trade Day was marked with dances and drum beats from community drummers and dancers coming from all over Sydney, the event held outside the cafe overflowed into the streets of Glebe Point Road (a major street in Sydney). The event made Sydney one of 10 global cities marking the theme of the day to 'Make a Big Bang to Beat Poverty'. The event was part of a series of global poverty alleviation awareness raising events marking 'Fair Trade Fortnight'. The event itself attracted over 700 people within 1½ hours.

External links

Further reading

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 2/15/2014. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.