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Caritas Australia's free e-magazine, OzSpirit, this week focuses on "Education for all: Promoting life-long learning" and tells the story of Y Re from Vietnam. To learn more about Education for all, Project Compassion, and social justice issues in Australia and around the world, take a look at OzSpirit. It is available at www.ozspirit.com or through the Caritas Australia web site, www.caritas.org.au, where you can subscribe on-line for free.

WA: Environmental Justice and Green Cities
On Wednesday, 21 March 2007 at 6pm at the Octagon Theatre, Univercity of WA Perth, Professor John Coleman SJ,
Professor of Social Values - Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles will present a public lecture on Environmental Justice and Green Cities.

Professor Coleman will argue that we are not really serious about environmental responsibility if we do not focus on cities. As Eugene Linden has put it in a seminal essay in Foreign Affairs : "The developed world ignores at its peril the problem of third world cities". Cities more than rural areas leave large 'ecological footprints' which are not, in the long run, sustainable. More...

WA: A Talk with Jodie Martire
Jodie Martire has just returned from Colombia, where she spent 15 months as a volunteer with Peace Brigades International (www.peacebrigades.org) as an international human rights observer.  She provided political support to Colombian human rights defenders and members of communities of internally displaced refugees (IDPs).

Come and hear her speak on Thursday 22 March 6:00pm at Edmund Rice Centre for Social Justice, Fremantle 24 High Street (Round House end) For more information contact Tracy Pollett at ercoffice@powerdsl.com.au

NSW: Brigidine Bicentenary Seminar on Social justice
On Tuesday, 27 March 2007, 7.15 PM - 9.15 PM at the Australian Catholic university North Sydney The Brigidine Sisters are holding a seminar on Social Justice.
Guest speakers will include Robert Fitzgerald, currently a full time Commissioner with the Australian Government's Productivity Commission: and the Hon. Susan Ryan, AO President of the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees and is a Pro Chancellor and member of Council of the University of New South Wales.
The seminar will be chaired by Philippa McDonald senior reporter at the ABC. Philippa was recently awarded the United Nations Association of Australia Media Peace Award, best TV current affairs, for her feature story on the plight of Burma's Karen refugees.
More information e-mail  or phone Frances
Phone: 99083608 or
Email: francesd@zip.com.au

VIC: Eliminating Racism: Valuing Diversity
On Wednesday 21 March, 2007, in the Function Room 3, Level 12, Victoria University, the university will be holding a forum to consider anecdotal and research-based evidence about racism and discrimination in Australia and strategies to counter these phenomena.
Visit their Website

NSW: Liberating the captives
On Saturday 24th March 2007 at Wesley Mission, 220 Pitt St, Sydney, Tear Australia will be hosing a seminar on the Bi-centenary of the Abolition of Slave Trade Act.
Guest speakers will include David Batstone former editor of Sojourners, and author of Not for Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade-and How We Can Fight It (HarperCollins, 2007). Visit their Website

NSW: Drop the debt
On Saturday 14 April Jubilee Australia will present a lunch and talk with Fr Brian Gore, long time debt activist working in the Philippines. Fr Gore will be in Sydney sharing with us his first hand account of how the indebtedness of the Philppines is affecting the lives of the most vulnerable.Visit their Website


SA: Make Indigenous Poverty History Forums
In 2007, NATSIEC will be holding forums right around Australia, where local speakers will talk about their experiences of poverty with a particular focus on solutions and hope for the future. From 22 - 28th March they will be holding forums in South Australia
If you would like to attend, host, or help organize a forum,
Visit their Website

21st March - International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is observed annually on 21 March. On that day, in 1960, police opened fire and killed 69 people at a peaceful demonstration in Sharpeville, South Africa, against the apartheid "pass laws". Proclaiming the Day in 1966, the General Assembly called on the international community to redouble its efforts to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination.

To download the action sheet prepared by NATSIEC for International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination click here

22nd March - World Water Day
Australians are increasingly aware of what a lack of water means for us and the impact of our water consumption on the environment. In the cities we have water restrictions of varying degrees and in the country the ongoing drought is having devastating effects on families, communities and the economy. This year's world water day theme "Coping with Scarcity' is therefore particularly pertinent to this continent.

Indigenous Communities face additional hurdles with regard to water supply. In many communities simply maintaining clean water supplies is an issue. Water supplies into many remote Aboriginal communities' are not secure and are unsustainable; without adequate clean water diseases spread and contribute to the woeful state of Indigenous health.

To download the action sheet prepared by NATSIEC for World Water Day click here.