Where hope lives

September 01st, 2016

A charity being run out of a small office in Nairne is bringing hope to thousands of African school children each year.

Australia HOPE International was founded in 2003 by Bill and Norma Osborne of Hartley, after a fateful trip to Africa.

“While we were there, one of the children who’d really made an impression on us, a little girl, actually died of malaria,” Bill said.

Upon returning to Australia, Bill and Norma were driven to involve themselves in a range of international aid programs, before founding their own organisation.

From small beginnings, HOPE has grown, with close to 3,200 students now receiving schooling in more than 20 locations across Uganda and the Congo each year.

Education is a particular focus for HOPE because of the impact it can have across someone’s entire life.

“Schooling and education means real hope for the future,” Bill said.

“Without it, girls get nabbed to become sex workers and boys to become child soldiers or thieves and beggars.”

“Education allows us to change all that, to really make a positive impact on the region,” he said.

Nobody serves as a better example of the opportunity education affords than one student named Rita.

Aged just eight, she was found lying on her papyrus mat with her brother and mother and “waiting for death,” Bill said.

“When I first interviewed her, she said she wanted to become a doctor and a pastor,” he said.

Now, nine years later, she has been awarded a prestigious scholarship in Phoenix, Arizona to study medicine.

When she finishes her degree, she hopes to return to her Ugandan home and practice, providing others with the medical attention she lacked in her childhood.

It’s children like Rita that drive the volunteers at HOPE, having seen the profound impact their work can have.

“Norma and I are both retirees, but when you have stories like Rita’s you never want to pull out and stop doing this kind of work,” Bill said.

For Ros Morgan, one of the few paid part-time staff at HOPE, the charity is a labour of love for all involved.

“I was a volunteer for many years, and even now I put in far more hours than I’m paid to do,” she said.

“It’s about that passion for involvement with international development.”

This small, community run approach serves in the charity’s favour, allowing it to keep overheads as low as just 5 per cent compared to other organisations, which can be as high as 20 per cent.

“It maximises the impact that a dollar has overseas, where it really matters,” Ros said.

But more than that, the organisation’s small size means it has a personal connection with the people it sponsors.

“I’ve been to Africa twice now to visit our schools, and I’ve seen a huge difference between those two visits - there was a real sense of development and improvement,” Ros said.

The personal approach also means that volunteers know the stories behind the African craft-work and artefacts which it sells in its small store, the proceeds of which go back to their makers in Africa.

Having raised more than a million dollars annually through sponsorships, donations and fundraising for the previous two years, HOPE has given some thought to expanding its projects.

“Ultimately we want to make sure we do what we do well, as opposed to stretching things too thinly,” Ros said.

But HOPE would like to provide education for older students, and is looking to expand its secondary education program to Uganda.

For now, the organisation welcomes anybody interested in volunteering to come in for a chat at their office at 72 Main Road, Nairne. More information is available at http://www.ahi.org.au.


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