I’ve also decided how I want to approach my ‘I will…’ commitment to learn some Indigenous language. Given my love of singing, I’m combining the two and learning to sing Wiyathul by Dr G Yunupingu. It might take me a while to get it right but my singing teacher is up for it!
Centre for Humanitarian Leadership
We were thrilled to welcome Dr Hugo Slim, Head of Policy for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), to our shores last week. He gave the keynote address at the 2019 Asia Pacific Humanitarian Leadership Conference in Melbourne. He called it ‘Leading Big and Small: Balancing Scale and Detail in Humanitarian Leadership’.
We also led two sessions at the conference. Louise McCosker (International Humanitarian Diplomacy Lead) led a session on the ‘Lessons Learned from a Locally-Led Emergency Response’ research publication. This research followed the earthquakes in Lombok and Sulawesi in late 2018. Thousands of lives were lost and hundreds of thousands were and still are affected. The research looks into what of the response worked well and what we can learn from it.
The second session was led by Annie Ingram, Project Coordinator, Emergency Services, NT. She talked about our work in the Northern Territory harnessing Indigenous knowledge to strengthen emergency responses. She talked through three case studies – Tiwi Islands, Nauiyu (Daly River) and Galiwin’ku (Elcho Island).
Can I tell you a story?

June is an important month for us each year. It is when we have our annual fundraising campaign – Bring More Good. I am going to encourage my peers, colleagues and friends on my social networks to contribute to our campaign by writing some stories of the amazing work we do and asking them to donate to it. Obviously I'm also retweeting and posting on LinkedIn what’s being published on our @RedCrossAU channel.
I’ve heard some great stories of what various Red Cross people are doing to raise funds The Legal and Policy team raised $436 this week through their “certified cakes” initiative. Staff who needed documents certified were encourage to give a gold coin donation and, at the same time, enjoy a slice of cake or two. The Strategy, People and Performance team is holding a cooks and books sale in June raising funds through the sale of baked goods and second hand books. There will also be a pop-up Red Cross shop in the Melbourne office on that day.
My favourite so far is Kat Watt (Business Engagement Lead, IT), who is offering her hair to raise funds for Red Cross. For those who know Kat, you’ll agree that her bright, split-dyed hair is a major part of her persona. Kat’s offering to go for a pixie haircut if she manages to raise $5,000, half her hair to the razor for $10,000 and go bald for $20,000! That’s a brave call!

For those of you yet to decide what your contribution will be to our largest fundraiser of the year, here is a suggestion. Tell stories about the incredible people we work with. Like Rose, who defies expectations every day. Or Brian, who keeps getting up after every setback. Or Wendy, a mum who’s great in a crisis.
Here are their stories and tips on how to share them on LinkedIn, Facebook or Instagram. When you share these stories with family, friends, colleagues and others, encourage them to support you and Red Cross to help bring more good to the world and visit our website. There, they will find information about our humanitarian work and be able to make a donation. Together we can bring more good to world.
Feel free to post more than one story over the coming days. The more the better!
Talk to you soon.
Cheers,
Judy