National Close The Gap day is in March, 2014
Did you know
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people can expect to live substantially shorter lives than other Australians – up to 20 years less in some cases.
Babies born to Aboriginal mothers die at more than twice the rate of other Australian babies, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experience higher rates of preventable illness such as heart disease, kidney disease and diabetes.
It’s a health crisis you’d associate with an impoverished nation, but it’s happening right here in our own backyard. Together we can change this picture.
National Close The Gap Day 20th March, 2014
National Close the Gap Day (NCTGD) is a way for all Australians to join together and remind our political leaders of their commitments to close the life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians within a generation.
Oxfam’s campaign
Oxfam is holding a campaign calling on governments to take action to achieve Indigenous health equality within 25 years by:
- A long-term investment in Indigenous health; investment in financial and human resources
- Increasing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders’ access to health services
- Addressing critical social issues such as poor housing, nutrition, employment and education
- Building Indigenous control and participation in the delivery of health and other services
- Getting governments at state and national level to work in partnership with Indigenous communities, health organisations and experts to develop and monitor a plan to tackle the Indigenous health crisis
- Promoting real and meaningful partnerships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities and health services
Supporting Oxfam
Phoenix Rising For Children (PRFC) is an accredited out-of-home or foster care provider based in Sydney, N.S.W, Australia. PRFC was founded in 2001 to provide quality foster care to children and young people across Sydney, including contemporary, quality, family-based foster care and effective and specialist support services to children and young people and their families. PRFC operates ethically, effectively and empathically with a view to achieving quality outcomes and a satisfying working environment, and as such we support such organisations as Oxfam as they encompass similar ideals.
Have you considered fostering a young one? PRFC undertakes regular planning and evaluation and has a focus on personal development and training. If you would like to become a foster carer and join our team providing effective and meaningful care to children and young people, please contact us!
We also provide family contact services, and these specialize in contact supervision for children in out of home care with their parents and other significant family members.
We can be reached at mail@phoenixrising.org.au
Learn more about our foster care agency in NSW at www.phoenixrising.org.au
Take action!
Sign the Close the Gap pledge:
https://www.oxfam.org.au/my/act/sign-the-close-the-gap-pledge/
or get involved in National Close the Gap Day: https://www.oxfam.org.au/act/events/national-close-the-gap-day/
Be the voice for animals in Australia
Who is Animals Australia Inc.?
Animals Australia is Australia’s foremost national animal protection organisation, representing some 40 member societies and thousands of individual supporters. Animals Australia has an unprecedented track record in investigating and exposing animal cruelty and for conducting world-first strategic public awareness campaigns.
Animals Australia’s vision is a world where all animals are treated with compassion and respect and are free from cruelty. They believe that we can create a kinder world for all by fostering respect for animals and that our treatment of animals reflects who we are as individuals and as a society.
Impact
Animals Australia’s investigations investigations have been featured on every current affairs program in the country including Four Corners, 60 Minutes, Today Tonight, A Current Affair, The Project, Lateline and Landline. Investigations throughout the Middle East and South East Asia exposing cruelty in the live export trade resulted in the first ever suspension of live animal exports – to Egypt in 2006 then Indonesia in 2011 – and sweeping reforms to the operation of the entire industry. The organisation’s investigation into the factory farming of pigs in Australia which aired on 60 Minutes was a catalyst to the pig industry agreeing to restrict the use of pregnant sow stalls by 2017.
Lyn White is Animals Australia’s Campaign Director and Chief Investigator. Her work as an animal advocate has been acknowledged through being named a state finalist for Australian of the Year in 2011; in the same year being declared ABC Newsradio’s ‘Newsmaker of the year’ and Crikey.com’s ‘Person of the Year’; and being determined one of Victoria’s most influential people.
We’re all in this together
Most Australians — regardless of what they choose to eat — care about animals, and support action that helps protect them from cruelty. Animals raised for food outnumber humans by a staggering degree — yet they are underrepresented to an equally staggering degree. They cannot vote. They cannot cry out against cruelty. They have no voice to oppose injustice. Most are not even afforded the same basic legal protection from cruelty that protects our pets at home… In short, they need the voice of every caring person willing to speak up for them.
So, Animals Australia does not exist to represent vegetarians, vegans, or meat-eaters. They exist to represent animals. And they stand side-by-side with every person who wishes to see them protected from cruelty and who wishes to join us to create a kinder, more compassionate world.
Supporting Animals Australia
Phoenix Rising For Children (PRFC) is an accredited out-of-home or foster care provider based in Sydney, N.S.W, Australia. PRFC was founded in 2001 to provide quality foster care to children and young people across Sydney, including contemporary, quality, family-based foster care and effective and specialist support services to children and young people and their families. PRFC operates ethically, effectively and empathically with a view to achieving quality outcomes and a satisfying working environment, and as such we support such organisations as Animals Australia as they encompass similar ideals.
Have you considered fostering a young one? PRFC undertakes regular planning and evaluation and has a focus on personal development and training. If you would like to become a foster carer and join our team providing effective and meaningful care to children and young people, please contact us!
We also provide family contact services, and these specialize in contact supervision for children in out of home care with their parents and other significant family members.
We can be reached at mail@phoenixrising.org.au
Learn more about our foster care agency in NSW at www.phoenixrising.org.au
Day old chicks used in memory experiments
Humane Research Australia has condemned a recent experiment using day-old chicks as yet another tragic example of the unethical, cruel and pointless research carried out at Australian universities.
The experiment
The experiment conducted by researchers at LaTrobe University and published in 2012 used 1,160 one-day-old chicks to study the effects of Memantine – a medication for Alzheimer’s Disease – on their memories.
Chicks will innately peck at beads as food, researchers coat a certain different coloured bead in a bitter tasting substance, and after showing disgust when it pecks this bead, the chick will avoid pecking further beads of the same colour. This is called a one-trial passive-avoidance learning task.
In this experiment, the chicks were then injected with differing doses of Memantine to see what effect it would have on their ability at the one-trial passive-avoidance learning task mentioned above.
Humane Research Australia
Humane Research Australia condemns these tests as “Human clinical trials have already shown Memantine to improve cognition in Alzheimers Disease (AD) as well as vascular dementia, and it has already been approved for the treatment of AD in Europe and the United States. In some studies, various doses of memantine have been shown to have either no effect or to impair memory of rats and chicks. Other studies have shown it to improve memory functioning. Considering these factors, Humane Research Australia is asking if the researchers believe that data obtained from the brains of day old chicks can be extrapolated to the more advanced human brain? Why could this testing not have been observed in human patients using non-invasive imaging techniques?
Supporting Humane Research Australia
Phoenix Rising For Children (PRFC) is an accredited out-of-home or foster care provider based in Sydney, N.S.W, Australia. PRFC was founded in 2001 to provide quality foster care to children and young people across Sydney, including contemporary, quality, family-based foster care and effective and specialist support services to children and young people and their families. PRFC operates ethically, effectively and empathically with a view to achieving quality outcomes and a satisfying working environment, and as such we support such organisations as Humane Research Australia as they encompass similar ideals.
Have you considered fostering a young one? PRFC undertakes regular planning and evaluation and has a focus on personal development and training. If you would like to become a foster carer and join our team providing effective and meaningful care to children and young people, please contact us!
We also provide family contact services, and these specialize in contact supervision for children in out of home care with their parents and other significant family members.
We can be reached at mail@phoenixrising.org.au
Learn more about our foster care agency in NSW at www.phoenixrising.org.au
How you can help
You can help HRA make their case by writing in support of HRA’s views, and asking that they no longer fund unscientific animal-based experiments:
Australian Research Council
GPO Box 2702
Canberra 2601
Email: info@arc.gov.au
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