Big rigs and the open road: women in driver’s seat

0 Comments read Business and Trade, Gender
A triple road train. Photo Credit: Pilbara Heavy Haulage Girls

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney/Melbourne, 13.02.2022 (The Sun Herald and The Age):  As a seven-year-old, sitting high on the passenger seat with her younger sister, Kersti Jones would observe her mum, Heather, drive a 53-metre triple road train. She would imagine being behind the wheel as she looked below at other cars whizzing by on the highway.

The truck was their mobile home for seven years as they crisscrossed the resource-rich and rugged landscape of Western Australia.

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Micro-estimates of wealth data ‘can help tackle poverty’

0 Comments read Environment & Development, Health & Science

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 25.01.2022 (SciDev.Net): A data project charting poverty levels in detail across the global South could help policymakers better target social assistance and humanitarian aid, researchers say.

The COVID-19 pandemic has deepened poverty globally, with an estimated 97 million more people, most of them in LMICs, pushed into extreme poverty in 2021, according to the World Bank. But a dearth of reliable and up-to-date poverty data in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) poses a major challenge for governments and civil society.

To bridge this data gap, researchers at the University of California (UC), Berkeley, and the Data for Good programme, which collates data from Meta platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, have developed a public data set of Relative Wealth Index (RWI), which provides micro-estimates of wealth of all populated areas in the 135 LMICs. The study was published in PNAS on 18 January.

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“Aboriginal people need to know that the person making life-changing decisions is listening”

0 Comments read Disability, Health & Science, Indigenous, NDIS
Wayne Wright. Photo Credit: Supplied WW

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 10.01.2022 (Hireup): Aboriginal people, especially those living in regional towns, face additional barriers in accessing disability supports and services that suit their needs. Wayne Wright, of Kamilaroi and Wiradjuri descent, shares his experience of living in Orange (NSW) with mitochondrial autosomal dominant optic atrophy (DOA), an inherited optic neuropathy, that has rendered him legally blind and also impacted his hearing and nervous system.

The disease, which he inherited from the maternal side of his family, began to have an impact on his daily life around the age of 16. Determined, he pursued his father’s occupation and drove heavy machinery in the Top End for nearly two decades until his condition began to worsen.

“At 39, my driving license was revoked. I was compelled to choose a different career so I enrolled in a community service course at TAFE. It has opened a rewarding career pathway, but because I only have 20/13 vision and can’t hear properly, I cop a lot of abuse in the community on a daily basis. This has been emotionally draining and detrimental to my mental health”, says Wright.

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