Mercy Works Limited
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Mission Statement
Promote social justice and self-reliance through local and overseas community development and relief activities that are part of the vision and mission of the Sisters of Mercy in Australia and Papua New Guinea
About This Cause
Established in 2000, Mercy Works is the development arm of the Sisters of Mercy in Australia and Papua New Guinea. We partner with challenged communities in Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Australia to promote justice and self-reliance. We only respond to requests for help and never impose what we think people might need. It is our vision that the communities we work with all have equal access to basic human needs such as education, health care and social welfare. Australia Despite our country’s many advantages and continued high rankings in Human Development Reports, many Indigenous and refugee communities continue to face significant disadvantages, especially in health, education, housing and employment. Both in our cities and in remote areas, these communities face challenges every day that the rest of Australia would find difficult. Our refugee and Indigenous projects are spread across Australia and focus on education as a means of empowering our newest and oldest members of society. Indigenous Projects Baabayn By supporting a Child Care project in the western suburbs of Sydney, Mercy Works has enabled the Baabayn Aboriginal Corporation to provide a culturally sensitive program each Wednesday. While the children embrace enthusiastically basic pre-school activities, their mothers participate in a program to help improve mental health and confidence through a cultural exploration of different artistic media. This program enables the young mothers and their children access to services they would not have due to their lower economic status. The provision of early learning services has helped to prepare the children for transition into the next stage of their educational journey. This project has proved to be a refuge for the Mums while providing an educational experience for their children! Prospering After Prison Located in Port Augusta, South Australia the Prospering After Prison program aims to assist Aboriginal women as they transition from prison and back into the community. Upon release from prison, Aboriginal women are supported one to one with dedicated case workers to start the process of building personal and financial resilience and connection to their chosen community across the Far North and Eyre & Western regions of South Australia. This program provides the crucial support system for these women as they face significant barriers to improve their capacity and confidence, establishing a home and integrating back into their chosen community. Developing better living skills, helping with cultural healing, community connectedness and building financial and personal resilience are the key focuses of the Prospering After Prison project. At a time when they are most vulnerable and at risk of re-offending, these women are given pastoral support and assistance in navigating the transition from prison to everyday life. Mercy Connect For students who are asylum seekers and refugees, adjusting to a whole new life in Australia presents many challenges. Being placed in a school after lengthy periods in a refugee camp or a place of refuge can be a very stressful time for these young people who can often feel isolated and anxious as they try to settle into a new culture and school system. Many of them arrive in Australia after having experienced lengthy periods of dislocation, grief and trauma. Launched in Sydney in 2008, Mercy Connect is our largest volunteer program. It recruits, trains and supports volunteers to assist school students, groups of adults and their families from refugee backgrounds adjust to life in Australia. After training, the volunteers offer mentoring to students as they settle into the Australian school and education system. They provide support that nurtures well-being and self-esteem and improves students’ literacy and numeracy skills. Usually our volunteers have a background in school education with many being ex-teachers. Volunteers work with the refugee students, from K-12, for a minimum of a half day per week. The program also supports parents and mature age students through adult classes providing them with the opportunity to improve their spoken and written English. 13 years on and Mercy Connect is now operating in five cities across Australia, – Sydney, Melbourne, Ballarat, Bendigo, and Perth, – with more than 300 volunteers supporting over 1400 students in 116 primary and secondary schools. At Mercy Works we are very proud of our Mercy Connect program which benefits refugees and asylum seekers, while at the same time enriching the skills and experience of so many generous volunteers. Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (PNG) is a beautiful country rich in culture and natural resources, but with many challenges. Rapid urbanisation has led to overcrowding, high unemployment and high crime rates. People in rural areas have severely limited access to health and education resources. Domestic violence and sexual abuse, especially against women and children, is all too common and prosecutions are rare. Our projects in Papua New Guinea aim to empower challenged communities and improve lives. They are focused in the regions of Goroka, Mt Hagen, Kiunga, Wewak, Simbu and Port Moresby. Simbu Simbu Province is a rugged mountainous area located in the central Highlands. It is the smallest province in Papua New Guinea in terms of land area, and the most densely populated. Access to basic services such as education and health care remains limited especially for those living in remote areas. Simbu comprises six districts and covers 20 Local Level Government areas (LLGs). Land and water are the main natural resources used for livelihoods and these are generally accessible to the people of Simbu. The main constraint for farmers is a lack of access to markets. There is a significant lack of access to non-formal education of the type that Mercy Works provides, such as living skills and technical training. This is a prominent reason for the limited opportunities for young people, especially as employment prospects are very low. Transitioning Into Simbu The most significant development issues that were highlighted during the recent 2019 needs assessment report were: the lack of opportunities for young people, and associated problems such as drug and alcohol abuse, social and cultural breakdown including family breakdown, a handout mentality, political influence in communities linked with corruption and tribal fighting, and gender based violence including sorcery related violence and child abuse. Related to these are various human rights concerns, rights for children, people living with a disability, women, prisoners, to life and security, to information, the right to education, to basic health, and the rights and responsibilities of communities. Programs & Activities In the second half of 2020, Mercy Works is moving into Simbu Province and will be focusing on the following programs and activities to address the developmental needs of the community: Awareness raising activities Life skills training and technical training Facilitating the formation and strengthening of community self-help groups or cooperatives Other activities for young people Rehabilitation activities for prisoners Networking and partnership possibilities Kiunga Situated on the Fly River near the border with Indonesia, Kiunga has become a significant port for the growing mining and liquid nitrogen gas industries. This has led to a rapidly expanding population – from 7,000 in 2002 to as much as 30,000 today. In turn, this has led to the problems of crime and unemployment. There’s also a significant West Papuan refugee population. Communities such as Kiunga are working to overcome issues and problems that are a result of their remote location, lack of infrastructure and minimal access to education and skills training. The most urgent community development challenges in Kiunga are: transport to remote villages, unpredictable and very changeable weather patterns and the development of ownership, responsibility and sustainability of the projects by the people. Village Health We help fund a program that trains people working in health centres and aid posts in the North Fly region. Training is conducted at 8 health centres and more than 20 aid posts and covers five modules, namely: volunteerism, learning about health, self-help care, healthy children and healthy mothers. Many of our trainees go on to become birth attendants and travel to remote regions assisting women in labour. This has helped to significantly reduce maternal and infant mortality rates. A new pilot project in the village of Drimdamesuk has upgraded and improved an existing AidPost Clinic. The installation of solar panels and a water tank has made this AidPost operational giving them a clean water supply and electricity. This means that medicine and vaccines can now be stored correctly and refrigerated. Remote Girl’s Hostel The La Sagesse Girl’s Hostel in Kiunga is providing much needed safe accommodation for young women who would otherwise not be able to commute to and from school safely due to living in remote and often isolated villages. The remoteness of large parts of the western province is a major barrier for youth from isolated villages to access education beyond primary school. The distance to further education facilities makes it impractical, so primary level is the only option available to them. The hostel facilities now enables female students aged in their 20s to complete secondary education and vocational training courses in Kiunga. Family Life Through workshops focusing on gender based violence and parenting skills training, Mercy Works, is aiming to minimise violence in families and communities in the Northern Fly region of PNG. Sadly, PNG has some of the highest rates of domestic, gender and sexual based violence rates in the world. These programs aim to educate families and communities about these issues, how to prevent them and work through problems and issues without resorting to violence.