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About Us |
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Jewish Aid Australia (JAA) was founded in 1994 (originally called ’Keshet’) as a response to the humanitarian disaster unfolding in Rwanda. Our aim was to create within the Australian Jewish community a recognizable organisation that could provide a collective response to important humanitarian issues in the non-Jewish world. In this way we believed we could break down the reluctance of some within our community to become involved with the greater Australian and international community, by enabling them to do so within a Jewish context. Jewish Aid Australia's Mission Statement is to mobilise the Australian Jewish Community to contribute to areas of major need in the Australian and World Community and thus give expression to the Jewish ethic of active charity by providing ongoing support for humanitarian relief. We provide this assistance - in Australia or around the world - to those in need on a non-discriminatory basis, regardless of sex, age, religion or race. Jewish Aid's activities are aimed at maximising the contribution we can make to alleviate the suffering of others by working with organisations who already have structures and people in place to respond. In this way we do not waste money by duplicating scarce resources and Jewish Aid Australia's activities complement and help extend work that is already taking place. Since 1994, Jewish Aid Australia has raised approximately $500,000 for international emergency relief, collected clothing and toys for local projects, provided educational programs to the Jewish Day schools of Melbourne and Sydney and we have created volunteer programs for individuals and families who want to make that person-to-person difference. With only one part-time employee, our work relies on our volunteers to undertake the planning and hand-in-hand work with our partners. In 2004, 67% of our members were active in the work of JAA. We are also proud of our low administrative overheads - in 2004/5 our running costs for the appeals we held were approximately 4% of donations. JAA is committed to continually look at improving the way we work with our partners and the way in which we communicate and engage with our volunteers. This has meant undertaking qualitative questionnaires with our partner organisations and the creation of measurement tools to track the activity and satisfaction of our volunteers. We believe that these early steps in this area will help us mature and grow into a more effective humanitarian organisation. |
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