Modern Slavery in Asia Pacific fuelled by poverty, migration & weak governance

15/05/2020 0 Comments read Environment & Development, Features, Migration

The writer won the 2020 NSW Premier’s Multicultural Communications Best Print Report Award for this story

The writer’s interview on SBS Radio Hindi Service

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 15.05.2020 (IPS): Aged 17, Moe Turaga was saddled with the responsibility of providing for his mother and young siblings when a family member approached him with the promise of a job and education in Australia. Dreaming of a bright future for himself and his family, he seized the opportunity and left the protective confines of his home in Fiji, only to find himself trapped in modern slavery on a remote agriculture farm in the state of Victoria.

Turaga was one of 12 cousins, forced to work long hours in abysmal conditions. He told IPS, “We had implicit faith in this man as he was family and a church minister. We kept loyal for years because we were told that our wages were being used to feed our family and send our siblings to school. It was 1988, we didn’t have mobiles or access to social media. All our identity documents had been confiscated by this man so we were completely isolated.”

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Robyn Norton: Closing the data gap is essential for reaching gender equity in health

11/11/2017 0 Comments read Gender, Health & Science

Professor Robyn Norton and Australian High Commissioner in India, Harinder Sidhu, at the launch of the 10th anniversary of The George Institute for Global Health in India book written by Neena Bhandari

By Neena Bhandari

Professor Robyn Norton grew up observing her parents’ commitment to equity and social justice in improving people’s lives in Christchurch, gateway to New Zealand’s South Island. It left an enduring impression on her young mind. The women’s movement was reaching its peak during her high school years. She got drawn into thinking about addressing women’s health issues and moved to Sydney, Australia, and enrolled in a Master’s degree in Public Health.

Fast forward to late 1990s. She says, “The global burden of disease was changing, particularly in lower and middle-income countries where Non-Communicable Diseases [NCDs] and injuries were emerging as a leading cause of death and disability. The expertise to manage the emerging epidemic of NCDs and injuries was not available in these countries. Most of the global collaborations between the high income and low-income countries were still focused on maternal and child health and under nutrition”.

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Bruce Neal: Changing the way the world makes, markets and eats food

11/11/2017 0 Comments read Health & Science

By Neena Bhandari

Bruce Neal had been working on his doctorate on cardiovascular disease with the George Institute’s co-founder, Stephen MacMahon, in Auckland. It was 1999, Stephen and Robyn Norton were contemplating setting up an Institute focusing on the health consequences of chronic diseases in low and middle-income countries, and invited him to join.

“It was a novel idea to set up an Institute to address cardiovascular diseases and injuries in low-middle income settings. Until that time almost all the big international research institutes working in low- and middle-income countries focused on maternal and child health. So, I seized the opportunity and moved to Sydney”, says Professor Neal, who was born in the port city of Aden in Yemen. He studied medicine at Bristol University in England and worked for four years in the United Kingdom’s National Health Service before moving to New Zealand to begin a research career.

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