Diamond Valley Group's Activities in 2008.

The 2007-8 year has been another varied and interesting program, providing new perspectives, information and challenges. The energy and enthusiasm of the members continues to make it one of the more active Oxfam groups and it has made a real contribution to both the local and the international communities.

In February, Christina Hill, working with Oxfam’s Mining Ombudsman gave a presentation about the work of the Ombudsman and impact of mining on women.

At the April meeting, Abdelhadi Matar, President of the Darfur Community Association of Australia, spoke to the group about the tragedy of Darfur. He is also involved with the Darfur Australia Network (DAN), a not-for-profit community organization run by the Darfur community to raise awareness about the continuing tragedy in the Darfur region of Sudan, to assist in the resettlement of Darfuri refugees and build solidarity between the Australian people and the people of Darfur.

In May, Bruce Eady talked about the significant progress made in Bangladesh to prevent the widespread loss of life that has traditionally occurred in times of flood and the role that Oxfam has played in this program.

At the June meeting, Doug Franklin gave a presentation about desalination plants and their contribution to future water supplies, while Ant Clark talked about the leaflet entitled "Lifting the lid on toilet injustice" in this International Year of Sanitation".

More recently we were challenged to take up the Fair Trade challenge, hearing about the World Vision "Don’t Trade Lives Campaign", getting an understanding of the broader fair trade issues from Jeff Atkinson and how we can work towards making Nillumbik a fair trade council from Donna Parker.

For the financial year ended 30 June 2008, we had fewer fundraising events:

The Book Fair in October 2007 raised over $13,000. Many people helped to make the bookfair so successful. A special thanks to Beth Pender for coordinating the Book Fair, but many others helped both beforehand in the sorting and on the day.

Thanks also to Val Byers for coordinating the sale of the tea and coffee. The sale of fair trade commodities also contributed several hundred dollars. All these people require a special thank you but have been supported in many ways by other members.

Group members again participated in other Oxfam fundraising events, including Trailwalker and the sale of Christmas Trees. Some members supported the locally organised Eastern Suburbs Walk Against Want.

The group has associated itself through various events with the Eltham Bookshop in several book events and the "World Matters" weekend. Of particular note was the presentation of Duncan Green, the Head of Research at Oxfam GM, about his book 'Poverty to Power', with over 50 people attending. 

Many group members have made varied and important contributions to the life of the group over the past 12 months. On behalf of the group I want to thank a number of them: Carol and Marguerite for planning and arranging the monthly meetings, John for producing the newsletters and being the publicity contact/webmaster, Alister for being Treasurer and Elizabeth for compiling the minutes and taking over the task of the newsletter mid year.

The Diamond Valley group is an important part of our local community providing a broader Australian and international perspective, which we hope is found to be both stimulating and challenging. I look forward to it continuing with even greater vigour in the coming year.

Stephen Lavender, Chairman