I have done some work with Positive Change for Marine Life over the years and the letter in last week’s Echo from Mark Westley, ‘Trump has ruined our rivers’, reflects not only a complete lack of understanding of the organisation or their local work, but also about what NGO funds and aid are designed to do and how they do it.
It would be interesting if Mark looked at what USAID was funding in Ukraine before he spewed more right-wing propaganda by the likes of a billionaire (Musk) who has not been elected to run the US and is making >US$8 million in taxpayer funding every day, while trying to take away pensioners’ US$63 a day that they earned through a lifetime of paying taxes. Does Mr Musk pay these? Is he even a US citizen?
Yes, USAID provided $36.8 billion to Ukraine, including emergency hospitals, drugs, HIV and tuberculosis clinics, emergency education centres, veterans’ clinics, bomb shelters and services for those who have lost everything. There is no evidence of USAID spending money on armaments, nor is that their mandate as an independent agency.
Mark states, ‘To me, its principal remit has been to create and sustain human conflict’. Interesting Mark. Where did you get this idea from? Sky News or Fox and Friends?
USAID is an aid agency that, among other things, has:
– provided vital services not only for Ukraine but other war-torn, invaded and/or extremist-impacted regions such as Gaza, Somalia, the Congo, Nigeria, Syria, etc.
– Protected the Amazon from illegal clearing while also working to address and reduce the coca trade within South America.
– Responded to medical emergencies worldwide, including disease outbreaks, women’s health issues, the HIV epidemic, and to stop pandemics (like COVID19) before they can spread.
– Provided vital climate mitigation and resilience program funding in places like the Pacific that are at the forefront of the impacts of anthropogenic warming.
– Provided shelter funding and social services for people fleeing violence, persecution or crises in tens of politically unstable countries.
– Funded key environmental programs to restore landscapes, protect high conservation areas and increase the uptake of renewable energy.
There is no evidence of any support for conflict; it is quite the opposite. USAID helps those who have suffered from conflict.
As for your judgement of an organisation that you clearly know nothing about, I went to the 2022/23 Positive Change for Marine Life annual meeting where they broke down the funds spent during that year. This is the same year of their most recent annual report online (as I can see on their website). During that year, FYI 95 per cent of their donations came from a major private philanthropic trust, e.g. a donation! No doubt why they stated it as a donation! USAID only started funding them in 2024 I believe. These funds were also for the Pacific, not the Brunswick River!
Further, believe it or not, NGOs can and do (all the time!) provide incredible value for money where their overheads are less than their campaign expenses. They do this by relying on volunteers, having limited overheads for things like office space, vehicles and the like, and generally focusing on their mission as their main priority. I knew the founder of Positive Change when he started the organisation and he worked for six years for free while holding down other full-time jobs. Based on your ‘letter’ here, I wonder if you have given much to anybody, nor ever volunteered your time for a charitable purpose. Perhaps you should get out on the Bruns and experience the phenomenal work of PCFML, which they do with barely any funding in the face of a mammoth task, before casting incredibly uneducated and belittling judgements?
People like Trump, Musk and those who support the tearing down of all that is morally and ethically good in this world are one of either two things: greedy or ignorant. With solidarity for all of those who have, are and will suffer because of the ignorance and greed of others.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
