Last week, I returned from a 10-day trip to Melbourne. My time days there was absolutely jam-packed with meetings, events and catching-up with a few family friends.
I met with representatives from Save the Children, UNAA, Impact Investing Australia, Fitted For Work, IWDA, CBM Australia, Oxfam, Good Shepherd and the Australian Education Foundation to discuss the work they are each doing towards the achievement of the Global Goals.
I was also overjoyed to finally meet with Kim from our awesome partner NGO, Fairtrade Australia New Zealand.
I had the honour to attend the Anti-Poverty Awards Ceremony. Congratulations to the three winners! What fantastic work you all do towards the achievement of the Global Goals!
On Monday and Tuesday of last week, I attended the iCities Conference where I had the honour to give the keynote address and remind everyone that sustainability must remain a priority in urban planning and development.
Probably the highlight of my trip was visiting two schools: Huntingtower School and Moreland Primary School.
At Huntingtower, I ran a Global Goals workshop with the students. Each group of 5 or 6 had been assigned a goal as part of an ongoing school project. I took the opportunity to talk about the goals, and then we did a fun exercise where we mapped how each of the goals relates to one another. Some of these connections took some creative and critical thinking, but I was enormously impressed with what each of the students came up with.
My visit to Moreland was rather different. I met two teachers who had run a term of project-based learning with some of the students, focusing on a project which related to one of the goals. I was lucky enough to have some students present their projects to me. Each of them were incredible, some tear-jerking. It was another fantastic reminder that these young primary school children are really the future, and that they will be fantastic leaders with the right guidance.
All up, I thoroughly enjoyed my trip and look forward to going back next year to work with politicians and build upon the relationships which began over this trip.
This article was originally published on the Global Goals Australia Campaign website.
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