Day 278

Back on the road and giving back however I can. I started with writing my thank you letter for the Bert Show's Big Thank you. I then visited Amnesty International and wrote some letters for human rights.

We sometimes take our access to education for granted. But not everyone has the same easy access that we do. In 2005, Zimbabwe evicted 700,000 people from informal settlements. As a result, an estimated 222,000 children had at least some part of their education disrupted. Families were rendered homeless, poverty increased due to lost income earning potential resulting in an inability to pay school fees, and in some areas schools were demolished. Amnesty International believes Zimbabwe’s mass removal of citizens from settlements where they had access to education, and the subsequent failure to provide for the children’s education, amounted to a deliberate violation of individual rights.

In 2009 Australia endorsed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, a commitment to its Indigenous People. However, the Australian government plans to strip funds from homeland communities. Traditional homelands are home to nearly one-third of Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory. Research shows that with proper services people can be healthier, live longer and contribute valuable work on homelands, all with their identity and connection to the land intact. Yet the government's policy of stripping funding from essential services will effectively force people into hub towns and cities.  

The last letter was to help stop the harassment of Syrians abroad. Syrian authorities’ crackdown on dissent is not just confined to Syria. Syrian peaceful protesters in other parts of the world have also been systematically monitored and harassed by embassy officials and others believed to be acting on behalf of the Syrian regime.