COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE
We have found that we can create more good in our global community and measure that progress by engaging directly with the communities that we serve.
We have been working with an Australian registered charity called Dollar a Day. Through its networks, we can help people who suffer from extreme poverty. We aim to help them with immediate needs but also improve their life chances.
SUPPORT TO EMPOWER
These girls live in an orphanage and get housed and educated until Year 8. Then they have no choice, but to seek a marriage. Professor Jones and Dianne Allen personally funded Dollar a Day to establish a sowing training centre in the college. They bought the sowing machines and resupply them, so that each girl leaves the orphanage with the gift of the machine upon which she has trained. Textiles, Clothing and Footwear is Bangladesh’s only significant export industry, so the program gives the girls a real choice as to when they marry and to whom. Earning money can empower those girls to gain social and economic strength to look after themselves.
We want to use our academic and research expertise to conduct a social impact assessment of this program. These girls suffer a triple disadvantage: they are poor, orphans and girls.
After this project we will expand this program by attracting other donors to expand to other orphanages. We do not need money right now. You can get involved simply by registering your interest and getting onto our mailing list. We will keep you informed on the development of the project, and you can decide later whether you wish to make a commitment.
Dollar a Day also provides relief aid in Australia. During the North Coast floods, they provided emergency food packages to people in need. Right now, they are working to support emergency medical aid to Rohingya refugees. You can work with us or support their work directly.
CIHE is funding a research project in rural Bangladesh, which is testing entrepreneurial ideas that encourage rural parents to keep their children at school rather than using them as agricultural workers. One promising idea is to give families who comply a pair of breeding goats and the technical support they need to develop a herd. After three years, the herd can be sold for more money than the parents have ever seen, and they will receive a new breeding pair, provided their children have been attending school.
Another program that CIHE is planning will connect refugees to Australia, who have high levels of professional knowledge and skills to quickly find work in areas within which they are trained. This will assist their quick integration into the Australian community and give us all more of the skills we need rather than seeing them atrophy while the refugees try to establish themselves in low paid unskilled jobs. CIHE Is in the business of Higher Education and developing people from overseas into professions is our special strength. We want to apply this business strength, but we are very much in the planning stages. If you are interested in community work and have talents that we could apply to this project, we would love to hear from you.
If you are interested in any of these projects or have ideas for new projects you can become part of our community of practice. Just put your message and contact details into the window below.
Register your interest
Professor Grant Jones
Executive Dean Crown Institute of Higher Education
Professor Jones personally funded Dollar a Day to establish a sowing training centre in the college. They bought the sowing machines and resupply them, so that each girl leaves the orphanage with the gift of the machine upon which she has trained. Textiles, Clothing and Footwear is Bangladesh’s only significant export industry, so the program gives the girls a real choice as to when they marry and to whom. Earning money can empower those girls to gain social and economic strength to look after themselves.
