Australia
As Australia for UNHCR marks its 25-year milestone, Naomi Steer, our founding National Director, talks about the difference our supporters have made for refugees and how she helped build Australia for UNHCR into the charity it is today.
Of all the projects Australia for UNHCR supports around the world, the one Naomi Steer is first to recall is the Technology Access Centre set up more than a decade ago at Nakivale, a remote refugee community in southwestern Uganda.
Refugee community leaders had asked for the centre to help connect them to the wider world and learn new skills. Funds raised in Australia went towards building an IT training room with 45 networked computers and an internet café which anyone could access for a small fee.
Now the centre is self-supporting. It has trained thousands of refugees in digital skills and enabled some to find pathways to higher education, employment and even resettlement through connecting to lost families online.
“I can honestly say that without Australian donors the computer centre would never have happened,” says Ms Steer, who retired in 2022 after more than two decades at the helm of Australia for UNHCR. A brightly-coloured map of Australia painted on the centre’s exterior remains a testament to Australians’ support.
The Nakivale project is just one of hundreds of practical projects that Australia for UNHCR has funded over 25 years, raising more than $380 million from over 400,000 private donors.
Giving refugees more agency over their lives is a positive change in humanitarian support around the world over the same period.
“We have moved a long way from top-down assistance and solutions,” Ms Steer says. “Today, refugees’ participation in decisions that impact them is considered crucial – as it should be. Not only do refugees have unique insights into their own needs and challenges, but they also have skills and resourcefulness that can benefit the whole community.”
Still, the core issue remains unchanged: conflicts and natural disasters create displacement, while international support struggles to keep up. The scale of the need has grown while government support has decreased, making private sector donors critical to saving lives.
When Ms Steer became the founding National Director in early 2000, she came from a career as an international lawyer, diplomat and trade union leader. Over the next two decades, she built the organisation from a two-person team (Steer, an admin assistant, and “a filing cabinet and an enormous desk that served as the board table”) into a 50-plus employee national organisation.
“In the early days, we had to do everything ourselves,” Ms Steer says. “I was the head of Finance, Communications, HR and Fundraising all rolled into one. But we had a great board who opened their networks to me and there were many others who generously offered their time and support.”
In 2004, she introduced face-to-face fundraising, a successful initiative that built the regular giving donor program, providing a lot of the sustainable funding needed for humanitarian emergencies.
“Many of our face-to-face team were themselves refugees,” Ms Steer says. “Working together at Australia for UNHCR gave them a sense of family and also new skills to prosper in the wider Australian community. For me, it was the greatest testimony to our work that as refugees, they were out advocating for support for UNHCR."
Combined with this approach, staff from Australia for UNHCR went on regular field trips, bringing back videos, photos and stories that showed the practical and personal benefits of donor support – a practice that continues today.
Support received from our generous donors has provided life-saving humanitarian relief such as shelter, therapeutic food to treat severe malnutrition, clean water, schools, health clinics and vocational training centres.
Today, individual donor support is “more important than ever,” Ms Steer says, considering the 123 million people currently displaced around the world.
As Australia for UNHCR continues to fundraise for people fleeing crises in Ukraine, Sudan and beyond, Ms Steer has a clear message to all supporters:
“I want to thank every donor who gives to Australia for UNHCR for supporting one of the most important humanitarian causes of our lifetime. They can be confident that their support has changed not just one, but many, many lives.”