News Archive

AVI is delighted to announce that thanks to the incredible generosity of our supporters, we have recently issued four small grants to trusted partner organisations in Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

The Australian Government has recently announced important changes to its guidelines for student mobility programs funded by the New Colombo Plan.

As part of Include a Charity Week, AVI is profiling some of our most valued supporters who have chosen to leave a gift in their will to AVI. This is Joy Kelly’s story.

As part of Include a Charity Week, AVI is profiling some of our most valued supporters who have chosen to leave a gift in their will to AVI. This is Lyma Nguyen’s story.

As part of Include a Charity Week, AVI is profiling some of our most valued supporters who have chosen to leave a gift in their will to AVI. This is John Ingram’s story.

The Blue Pacific Pro Bono Collaborative was able to mobilise ten Australian lawyers from four leading law firms to Fiji for secondments varying from two months to two weeks. Through the Collaborative, Australian lawyers work alongside Fijian lawyers appointed by the Fiji Law Society to provide pro bono legal support to the Pacific Community (SPC), the Fiji Council of Social Services (FCOSS) and the Fiji Law Society. During that time, the lawyers work on projects that address issues such as gender-based violence, access to justice and community resilience, therefore contributing to stability and security in the region.  

For NAIDOC Week our Australian and international teams were invited to attend a presentation by the First People’s Assembly of Victoria on the Victorian Treaty process.

Following a highly successful 2024 program pilot, University of Tasmania students are now being invited to apply for the 2025 UniGO program.

As we draw towards the end of National Reconciliation Week, AVI is proud to announce the endorsement of our second Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan by Reconciliation Australia. Echoing the sentiments of Wurundjeri Elder Uncle Ringo Terrick who joined us for the launch event, this Reconciliation Action Plan is not just a document that sits on a shelf, it is a formal and public document that holds us accountable to our commitment to work towards reconciliation and truth-telling.

In the wake of the October 2023 Referendum, AVI continues to stand in solidarity and unity with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and, alongside more than 50 organisations in Australia as a signatory to the new ‘Statement of Commitment’. This statement sends a clear messaging, affirming that “We will not be fair-weather allies, we will not turn back, and we will not hesitate in continuing to fight for justice and self-determination for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.”

AVI’s President Sam Mostyn is appointed to the role of incoming Governor-General of Australia.

The Australian Government’s agreement with AVI to support the Solomon Islands Medical Partnership for Learning Education and Research (SIMPLER) concluded on 31 March 2024. The Ministry of Health and Medical Services (MHMS) and the National Referral Hospital (NRH) will assume ownership of the SIMPLER projects from here on.  

The Blue Pacific Pro Bono Collaborative will be able to scale up its pro bono work, providing free legal support to Pacific-led sustainable development projects that address climate change as well as stability and resilience in the Pacific. This is made possible with new grant funding from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office through the Integrated Security Fund (ISF). The ISF uses a whole-of-government approach to find creative solutions to promote international peace, security and stability.

AVI’s President Sam Mostyn is appointed to the role of incoming Governor-General of Australia.

The Blue Pacific Pro Bono Collaborative is a partnership between four major law firms and aims to provide pro bono legal support to satisfy the urgent, unmet legal needs of local partners working at the forefront of the climate crisis in select Pacific Island Countries.

Solomon Islands Medical Internship Bridging Program celebrates 10 new graduates who are now ready to commence their Internship Program this year at Honiara’s National Referral Hospital (NRH)

AVI Volunteer Anthony Healy on how the magic of AFL is promoting positive lifestyle choices and improving outcomes for school children in Papua New Guinea.

Solomon Islands Australia Awards fellows from Honiara’s National Referral Hospital finish a six-week study/observation visit to the University Hospital Geelong (UHG), Barwon Health, in Victoria.

The Australian Volunteers Program’s new hybrid volunteer model, designed to make international volunteering more accessible to a broader audience, has been recognised in the Australian Financial Review’s innovation awards.

In 2022, PWDSI applied for an AVI Grant to socialise a number of organisational policies which had been developed over the previous years and approved at Board level. The policies included Child Protection, PSEAH (Prevention of Sexual Assault, Abuse and Harassment) and Anti-corruption Policy. The project aimed to rollout the policies to staff and Board, providing them with training and support so that the policies were understood and implemented in the organisation.

AVI has been selected as the implementing partner for the University of Tasmania’s new flagship University Global Opportunity (UniGO) program, a fully-funded program enabling students from different faculties to immerse themselves in locally-led sustainability solutions in South-East Asia.  

Through our small grant program, AVI supported Empower Pacific to provide training for 18 counsellors in Disaster Mental Health Counselling and Working with Trauma – Interventions that Foster Resilience. These Credential Courses were run through the Mental Health Academy of Australia.  

AVI provided a grant allowing FCOSS to host the inaugural Sautu Volunteer Awards, recognising and celebrating volunteer work across the community development space in Fiji. The awards shone a spotlight on groups and individuals who selflessly contributed to the betterment of the local community.

AVI fully endorses the Uluru Statement from the Heart and accepts the generous invitation to work together for the recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sovereignty and a brighter future as a nation united. We wholeheartedly support the establishment of a First Nations’ Voice to be enshrined in the Constitution and a Makarrata Commission to lead to truth telling and treaty making. Australia is the only country in the world yet to formally recognise its Indigenous people in the form of a treaty or constitutional recognition.

Maddie Ezard, from Melbourne, has become the fourth volunteer to step into the Solomon Islands Intern Training Program Coordinator role, responsible for ensuring medical graduates enjoy a seamless pre-vocational education before they obtain their medical registration.

The end of a volunteer assignment is often just the beginning.

Include a Charity Week at AVI

The Board of AVI is seeking expressions of interest from people interested in being considered for appointment to the Board.

AVI leads by example in Child Protection

Solomon Islands medical education program gains new name

Ria Pillai is a third year Deakin University student studying a Bachelor of International Studies, majoring in Politics.

As 2020 draws to a close, I want to thank you, our valued supporters and partners for your ongoing commitment and engagement.

It is with great joy that I write this first note to you, AVI’s valued supporters, as I settle into my new role as Chief Executive Officer of this remarkable organisation.

Early next month, after an incredible five and a half years at the helm, AVI’s CEO Paul Bird will hand over to the organisation’s newly appointed Chief Executive, Melanie Gow.

Traditionally, the words ‘Highly Innovative’ have not been deemed synonymous with Australia’s not-for-profit (NFP) sector.

It’s safe to say 2020 is a year none of us will readily forget and yet it’s hard to believe we’re only just past halfway through.

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted on all of our lives, no matter where we live on Earth.

With the oldest living Indigenous culture, over 300 cultural backgrounds and languages spoken, and nearly half the population with at least one parent born overseas (as I do), Australia is considered one of the most multicultural nations.

As an organisation that exists to bring people together to share knowledge and build capacity where it’s needed most, the impact of COVID-19 has challenged our very ethos.

As an organisation that exists to bring people together to share knowledge and build capacity where it’s needed most, the impact of COVID-19 has challenged our very ethos.

As conversations around Coronavirus (COVID-19) continue, children may worry about themselves, their family, and friends getting ill.

At its core, AVI is driven by an ethos that puts people first. From the volunteers we mobilise to staff in partner organisations and our own staff based in 29 countries right around the world.

Last Friday, AVI proudly lodged its submission on Australia’s new international development policy. We applaud the government for inviting input from organisations that deeply care about the Australian government’s commitment to poverty alleviation, human rights, climate justice and inclusive economic development.

On Friday 14 February, 2020, AVI lodged a submission on Australia’s new international development policy, building on our response to DFAT’s review of Australia’s soft power strengths and capabilities.

Traditionally, as we draw the year to a close, we celebrate – with colleagues, family and friends. Physically and mentally, we wind down, welcoming the holiday season as a time to rest, reflect and rejuvenate for the year ahead.

This year, at the Committee for Melbourne dinner, the CEO of Telstra, Andy Penn, stated that we will never experience this slow rate of change again. This is little comfort given our lives continue to get faster and busier and we find ourselves ever time poor, especially for ourselves, friends and family.

Each year since 1964, the International Volunteering for Development agencies have come together to network, build relationships, share knowledge and work together to achieve better outcomes and advocate for this modality as effective and sustainable development.

1989 marked the year that, amidst the chaos and turbulence of global politics, the world paused to reflect and make a momentous commitment – to recognise and protect the rights of children.

As we pause to reflect the 30th anniversary of the UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), we asked AVI’s Child Protection team what it means to them.

At AVI we know that we stand on the shoulders of giants. Earlier this month, we lost one of the greatest. Dr Ian ‘Macca’ Angus Stuart McDonald was a giant of giants.

AVI is delighted to share this recent except from the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine’s publication ‘Your ED’ – featuring College Fellow and Australian volunteer Dr Donna Mills.

Unfortunately, yesterday’s headline “Climate change ‘hitting harder and sooner’ than forecast, warn scientists ahead of UN meeting” is now a recurring theme in the world’s media.

The Obstetrics and Gynaecology (O&G) Standard Treatment Manual (STM) for the Solomon Islands is an outcome of the AVI Solomon Islands Graduate Internship Supervision and Support Project (SIGISSP).

With a death toll of over 100,000 and 3.5 million left homeless, the Pakistan earthquake on 8 October 2005 was the deadliest to hit South Asia in 70 years.Being a normal school day, an estimated 19,000 school children tragically died when their schools collapsed. 

As you know, through successive international volunteering for development programs, AVI has a proud history of building the skills and capacity of for-purpose micro and small businesses.

July 12 of this year is a very special day for the people of Kiribati as it marks the 40th anniversary of their independence from the UK in 1979.

Gender inequality is one of the world’s oldest, most pervasive abuse of human rights. For women who live in endemic poverty, the struggle is radically disproportionate to those faced by men.