History of HART Australasia

Following a visit to Sydney by Baroness Caroline Cox in 2009, a group of interested people met to form a company, to be called HART Australasia, Ltd in order to pursue the mission and vision of HART UK established by Baroness Cox, in particular working in the Asia-Pacific region. Several years later, our ACNC registered charity set up a PAF in order to enable donors to receive tax deductibility through partner organisations like AFAP. Subsequently, we were delighted to be granted tax deductibility in our own right and to encourage our supporters to give to our partners in Timor Leste, Burma and Armenia.

TIMOR LESTE

HART UK with help from Dr Martin Panter on the HART Australasia Board established a partnership with HIAM Health in Dili, Timor Leste and constructed a purpose-built residential centre for children recovering from severe malnutrition and their families. With ongoing support from HART UK and Australasia, this most important project led to the saving of lives and the transformation of local communities in health, hygiene and agriculture. When HIAM moved more intentionally into training indigenous agricultural workers, HART Australasia, led by Dr Panter, gained a new partner in Timor Leste called Maluk Timor that shared many of the same concerns about malnutrition and women’s health. We developed an MOU with Maluk and were able to provide the necessary funding for a pilot Women’s Health and Social Care program on the mainland of Timor and on the often-neglected Artauro Island. Under the leadership of Drs Jeremy and Bethany Beckett, many women and their babies have been educated and assisted in providing the right nutrition and care to stem the awful tide of childhood malnutrition in Timor Leste. That project is ongoing and now funded by Maluk Timor Australia.

BURMA

As the wonderful people of this nation prefer the name Burma to Myanmar, HART Australasia has been pleased to join with HART UK to support the vision and mission of Dr Sasa in the remote western Chin State. At Leilanpi, Dr Sasa established Health & Hope Myanmar to provide training at Leilanpi for primary health care workers from across the province and more than 600 men and women were subsequently provided with excellent training and sent back to their villages. With the joint support of HART in the UK and Australia, not only was the funding of the training made possible but simple health care centres were built with solar powered lighting and equipment. Tragically, this vital work was halted following the brutal military takeover of Burma in February 2021 and the subsequent dismantling of the training programme in Leilanpi. We hope and pray that the work in Chin State may restart to see many lives saved and communities rebuilt.

ARMENIA

Baroness Cox has had a long and loving relationship with the Armenian people and a special concern for those in the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave. The Lady Cox Disability Rehabilitation Centre was built and staffed in 1998 through the generous financial support of HART donors in the UK. Since then, the Centre under the leadership of Vardan Tadevosyan has provided start-of-the-art rehab in the Caucases. In a region with few resources and little infrastructure to support those with disabilities, the Rehab Centre has been internationally recognised as the leading regional provider of rehabilitation to adults and children including those with Autism.

The Armenian Community in Sydney has a special relationship with Baroness Cox and HART and we have been pleased to raise financial support from our Armenian friends in Australia for the Rehabilitation Centre over the past decade.

Following the start of the Azerbaijani offensive against Nagorno-Karabakh in 2023, the centre was forced to close and its staff and patients had to flee for refuge into the Republic of Armenia.

PAPUA NEW GUINEA

For several years, HART Australasia has been working with Angus Skeoch, the founder and director of the RESTORE Project in the Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea. There are many remote villages and communities in the Eastern Province with schools and hospitals that are in very real and ongoing need of resources and staff. HART Australasia is currently supporting the cost of refurbishing a vessel in Brisbane to meet the needs of these communities and we expect to have a long-term partnership with RESTORE in providing what is needed to help children and their families of our near neighbour.

UGANDA

The Board of HART Australasia first met Pastor Peter Sewakinyara from Kyampisi, Uganda, nearly ten years ago. Peter and his team from Kyampisi Childcare Ministries have been working to see the eradication of child sacrifice by witchdoctors in Uganda and rescuing children abducted and mutilated by the witchdoctors. The ministry receives financial and Probono medical support from Australia in order for children to be both rescued and rehabilitated from this evil practice. There are many needs for the centre at Kyampisi which operates a school and rehabilitation centre. HART Australasia is in the process of raising funds for the purchase of a minibus to assist the staff in transporting children to and from the centre in Kyampisi.