Penny Mulvey
22 March 2024
Do you remember what you dreamed for yourself as a child? Just pause and think for a moment. Perhaps you dreamed of being the Prime Minister. Maybe a world-renowned ballerina. Or a fireman. As well as being Julie Andrews the Second, with long blonde hair, I wanted to change the world. Maybe at the same time!
Attending a Micah Women’s Leadership Dinner in Blackburn last week, our guest speaker, global women’s rights advocate, Asuntha Charles, spoke about the power of dreams.
Asuntha has spent the last 25 years advocating for children’s rights in Afghanistan, Philippines, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Bangladesh, and wherever she goes, she asks children about their dreams.
When Asuntha posed her question to a group of children in Afghanistan, “What are your dreams for when you grow up?” one girl stood up and boldly said to those gathered, “I want to be the first woman president of Afghanistan. We have no sufficient food to eat. There has never been a time when we have had enough. Why should I suffer.”
Read more: Christians cannot look away from Gaza, we must speak up
“I will make sure there is enough to eat and my country develops.”
Asuntha told the gathering of more than 80 women, that she wanted to take up this young girl’s dream.
She reminded us that women are strong and are highly empathetic. We need to pick up our dreams and make sure the voices of the most vulnerable can be heard.
This is quite a challenge in a world filled with conflict. Asuntha managed the Middle East crisis for World Vision that included Lebanon and the West Bank, for three months.
She told us that the world had failed in responding to the difficulties in Gaza. Asuntha feels personally responsible for every child who has died.
“What else can we do?” she cried from deep in her heart. “What creative solutions can we find?”
A voice popped up out of the gathering, “How do you keep your hope alive?” A great question.
“Stories I hear from children,” was Asuntha’s response. “They are still hopeful, even in conflict areas. When they have so much hope, how can I lose hope.”
Micah Australia executive director the Reverend Tim Costello reminded the gathering that the very first words in the Bible, “God spoke…” remind us that God is an advocate.
Read more: Somehow light and freedom broke in at Easter. Will it also happen in Gaza?
“Speaking is what advocacy is,” Tim said. “Advocacy creates space, protection, opportunities.”
Micah Australia has launched Safer World for All, an advocacy campaign the organisation plans to run over the next three years. The desire is that Safer World for All will become a catch cry recognised by all Australians.
Tim Costello spoke of a polycrisis, the period the world is now in. COVID-19, spiraling debt, rising inequality, cost-of-living crisis, climate crisis – these all make up this polycrisis. These individually serious issues, together threaten to derail the hard-earned progress to improve the lives of millions in the world.
Our children with dreams for a future, and those of us who might think we have outgrown our dreams, need to work together. Micah tells us that if current trends continue, the world we face in 2030 will be 575 million people living in extreme poverty, 600 million people facing hunger and 84 million children and young people out of school.
Dreaming for a better future will not happen without specific prayer and specific action. Asuntha Charles reminded us to pick up our dreams. How about you find yours and contribute to a Safer World for All.
This story was updated on 27 March to reflect that Asuntha Charles managed the Middle East crisis including the West Bank and Lebanon. She was not based in Gaza as the story originally stated.
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