EVEN after a year of record donations to tsunami-related relief, Australians are not suffering from compassion fatigue, a new survey has found.
According to the study, released on October 16 in Brisbane by Micah Challenge, a diverse group committed to working together to pursue global justice, “two-thirds of the public still wanted to increase overseas aid to countries that are poor, have poor social services, poor health standards or who are suffering from a natural disaster or post-conflict trauma”.
Micah Challenge, which is supported by Catholic groups such as Caritas Australia and the Marist Mission Centre, undertook the in-depth survey with the help of staff from the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Queensland for the Make Poverty History campaign.
Dave Andrews, from Micah Challenge, said the results were “truly remarkable” and “an exciting discovery” for advocates of more poverty focused overseas aid.
Mr Andrews said Micah Challenge would use the findings to lobby the Australian Government to increase aid to 0.5 per cent of GDP and focus aid on poverty alleviation, in order to halve absolute global poverty by 2015.
