I recently met Reema*, a 19-year-old Syrian girl, in a refugee camp in Lebanon. Back in Syria, Reema had her whole life before her. She’d just finished high school, and was about to go to university to study. She was eager to work and set up her future.
With a staggering 870 million people — or one in eight — going hungry on the planet each night, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the scale of global hunger and think it’s a problem too big to solve.
Nahed is 30 years old, the same age as me. She’s married with two daughters, whereas I’m single. I go home to my parents’ house on the Gold Coast when I’m not working overseas. She’s also living with her parents again. But that’s only because they fled the civil war in Syria together and came to Lebanon.
While mining has undoubtedly been kind to at least one woman, Gina Rinehart, the sector has an appalling – and often hidden – track record for hundreds of thousands of women in poor countries around the world.
People rushing into stores this week to stock up on Cadbury Easter bunnies and eggs for their loved ones should know the chocolate giant has so far ignored consumers around the globe who are calling on it to do better by the women who grow its cocoa.
For the Arms Trade Treaty to be bulletproof, the current loopholes must be closed. Australia should not settle for a compromise deal in the interests of reaching a broad global consensus.
Investment in disaster risk reduction will protect homes from being destroyed or washed away. It will reduce the risk of crop losses – people’s source of food and income. And, most importantly, it will help to save lives.
The tragic case in India has the potential to be a turning point for change in women’s lives in South Asia and beyond.
In the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, an AK-47 assault rifle costs as little as $20.
Buried in the government’s Australia in the Asian Century white paper is a different story to that presented in the headlines.