By Sandy Chockman

I came to an understanding of the community partnership Manly-Manado through my church, which organises an annual walk from The Spit to Manly, raising money for the micro-financing group, Bridge of Hope. I remember earnestly seeking sponsorship at work and amongst my various friendship and social groups. I gave each a passionate speech about the effectiveness of micro-financing in creating sustainable opportunities for families and individuals to transform their lives out of poverty. I felt effective. I was doing something practical that addressed the social injustice of entrenched, generational poverty. I was doing something to help break that cycle. I realised that my small efforts multiplied within the Manly community could create big changes.

Within my church I grew relationships with people in the movement – I found myself listening carefully, paying attention when they spoke about Manly-Manado. I wanted to ‘do something’ that would help draw attention to and positively affect the inequalities that exist between developed and developing communities. However a very personal and deeper yearning was a desire to ‘belong’ – to be part of something ‘in’ community. A community of active compassionate individuals compelled, not by self-actualisation, but rather by selfless acts of service. Service that builds connectedness and fosters reconciliation and unity and more specifically DYNAMIC COMMUNITY!

In Manly-Manado I found this community, relationships that helped to meet the need and poverty in my own life. It became a journey of learning. It is my belief, as a teacher, that knowledge and education are what creates and sustains change. We learn – we practice – we grow – we are transformed – we teach.

I have been fortunate enough to work on a project providing resources for the Sumompo Rubbish Tip Community Resource Centre.  This project has providentially created opportunities to speak at local churches, community events and schools, educating and informing on social justice issues. It has also drawn attention to global issues of poverty as expressed by the Millennium Development Goals.

Along the way I have been both challenged and inspired to continue my education, to consume less, to love my neighbours and to grow in my understanding that we all have a role advocating on behalf of the poor for policy changes. I have learnt that each of us has gifts; each of us can be active and each of us can be effective!

The injustice of circumstances that condemn children and their families worldwide to live in poverty can be overwhelming. Poverty can become like a vast ocean and we stand on the shore with just a small pebble in our hand. It can seem like nothing, but in tossing it into that ‘vast ocean’, the ripples it creates start and get bigger and bigger, and you never know how big they will get or what shore they will reach. Just imagine the splash we could make as a whole community galvanised into action!

I never ‘hoped or imagined’ how dynamically my relationships within the community fostered by ‘Manly-Manado’ would change my life, and how that in turn would effect and change the lives of people I have connected with both in Manly and Manado, and beyond!

I used to make excuses but now I know I can be useful in making a difference. I came to realise that when I change, the whole world changes.