Students practicing English with Palms Program Participant Liz O’Sullivan at BanKlother Public School
1. Enriches remote and indigenous communities in need

Your donation will enrich remote grassroots communities who may not otherwise have access to receive skill training vital for employment. Instead of dependence on aid they gain a level of independence, giving them the dignity they deserve.

2. Provides Palms mentors the means to enrich lives on your behalf

While you may not be able to volunteer, or become a Palms mentor, your donation enables those who can.

Palms mentors give away the comfort and the familiarity of lives with their loving families and friends in Australia for a much simpler life alongside their counterparts.  Ultimately they also help us become comfortable with a wider world.  Your donation helps to cover their basic living expenses.

Gabby Rankin has been working full-time from Brisbane since being withdrawn from the field due to COVID in March.  She was a mentor, teaching alongside Rofina, the teacher in this video whilst in Timor and continues to assist her with lesson preparation.
3. Caters to the real needs of the communities

We strongly believe that each community is the architect of their own development.  Palms Australia works with communities that identify for themselves the skills that they want to develop.  We do not decide for them, from a list of Western ideas and priorities, which skills or expertise they need.  They retain ownership of their own development which is achieved through the invaluable skill development program facilitated by the qualified and experienced Australians we send.

4. Offers sustainable and long-term solutions

Unlike some short-term volunteering opportunities focusing on short-term solutions which often are not sustainable by locals once the volunteers have left, Palms’ assignments are for the minimum of one year.  The reason is that real change and real capacity building in a community does not usually begin within the first 3-6 months of placement.   New Program participants need to:

  • immerse themselves in the everyday lives of local people,
  • discern the strengths of the community,
  • share the concerns of their local counterparts, and
  • identify with them the best methods to contribute.

Our volunteers are then in the position to create their most effective capacity building ensuring its sustainability and long-term impact; ensuring benefit to the community long after they have left!!!

5. Provides programs that are PROVEN to have enriched LIVES

It’s one thing when an organisation claims that their programs are effective, it’s totally another when community leaders themselves endorse an aid program as being effective in addressing real community’s needs and enriching their lives.   Since Palms began its journey in 1961, our programs and the invaluable work of our program participants have received overwhelming endorsements.  See those testimonies here.

Read more on our Impact page.

6. Provides programs that are backed by our SOLID 60+ years of experience

Palms Australia has been recruiting, preparing, and sending Australians abroad since 1961, which makes us the longest running independent international volunteer program in the country.  This solid experience ensures efficiency.  Every dollar we receive from our generous donors goes towards accomplishing the mission to :

  • Eradicate Poverty
  • Enrich Lives and
  • Enable Empowerment
7. Enables independence of political influences and agendas

Funds received from government agencies tend to come with strings attached.  These funds are often subjected to restrictions on how they should be spent, which may not necessarily meet the communities’ real needs. 

Your donation allows Palms to remain INDEPENDENT, which puts us in a unique position that allows our program to cater to the communities’ real needs.  YOU and your generous donation allow Palms’ programs to be built on genuine, mutually beneficial relationships that create real and sustainable change at the grassroots level.

Make a one-off donation

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Make a regular monthly donation

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