E&OE
28 January 2009
World Vision Appropriate Technology Project, Nazareth, Ethiopia
Response to a speech by Ms Tenagne Lemma, National Director, World Vision Ethiopia
SMITH: Thank you for that very kind and warm welcome.
I am very pleased to be here as Australia’s Foreign Minister and very pleased to associate myself with the terrific work World Vision and World Vision Australia do in this community project.
Australia is a long standing supporter of humanitarian assistance to Ethiopia, humanitarian and development assistance.
We do a range of things. As a government and as a people we make direct contributions at times of crises, particularly in times of drought. But also through our non-government organisations like World Vision Australia, the Australian Government and the Australian people make contributions to enable World Vision Australia to help in projects such as these.
The great thing of course is that what you see this morning is the transformation of lives, the transformation of the lives of families, the lives of the community. It is a great thing for Australia and Australians to be able to help in this way.
So I am very pleased to have come today, very pleased to inspect and to speak to the local community members and it is great to see how the recycling of natural products can lead to the transformation of community lives.
Australia has got a proud record of helping in Ethiopia. But we want to do much more. We want to do more not just in Ethiopia but in Africa generally.
Part of my trip to Ethiopia, to Addis Ababa, is to spend the next couple of days at the African Union Summit of Foreign Ministers, to make the point to my Foreign Ministerial colleagues that Australia believes that it can and should engage much more with the continent of Africa and the nation states of Africa and to assist where we can.
Thank you.
[Ends]
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