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News
August 10, 2026

About the role

This is a 12-month flexible/hybrid part-time (19h per week) parental leave cover position in Sydney CBD.

UnitingWorld is committed to working with local partners to support the development of effective Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) plans and approaches that are locally-led and owned, demonstrate impact, enable learning and improvement, and ensure accountability.

The role sits within UnitingWorld’s dynamic international programs team, which is responsible for stewarding relationships with church partners internationally, and for ensuring that our program portfolio and budget is delivered effectively, accountably and in line with compliance requirements.

As International Programs Advisor – MEL you will lead our work around annual program performance and impact reporting; facilitate and accompany new project design and evaluation processes; and enable continuous improvement in team and partner MEL capacity and practices.

You will develop and maintain strong working relationships with the UnitingWorld International Programs team, Fundraising and Communication team, and with local partner organisations.

For more information, please email Stephanie Dalton: stephanied@unitingworld.org.au using the subject line: International Programs Advisor- MEL 

Position Description

About UnitingWorld

 

 

by
News
August 6, 2026

Our church partners across Asia, Africa and the Pacific are working together to rebuild and protect lives. All possible through your support – read about your impact in our latest newsletter issue.

In the Solomon Islands, our partner the United Church in the Solomon Islands (UCSI), continues to build climate resilience, prepare communities for disasters and promote healthy, safe relationships. A team from UnitingWorld visited Solomon Islands in the aftermath of Severe Tropical Cyclone Maila and saw first-hand the impact of your support.

Along the India-Pakistan border, UnitingWorld and the Diocese of Amritsar are transforming entire Dalit communities — empowering children to pursue education, and creating lasting change. In 2008, just 38 per cent of children were enrolled in school. Today, that number is 100 per cent, across a project that has grown from 10 villages to 20, now reaching 9,678 people.

In Timor-Leste, UnitingWorld supporters continue to help our partner FUSONA to bring food security and health improvements. They delivered health assessments for over 120 toddlers and taught families to make nutritious meals. Child malnutrition has been reduced in the communities served.

In Eastern Indonesia, the Healthy Kitchen program initiative carried out by our partner, the Christian Evangelical Church in Timor, continues to provide sustainable solutions that strengthen household food security and improve family nutrition.

In Zimbabwe, UnitingWorld through partnership with the Methodist Development and Relief Agency of the Methodist Church of Zimbabwe has been supporting improved access to drinking water and nutritious food at schools.

In Fiji, we hosted our Annual Pacific Partners Forum in Nadi, bringing together delegates from ten Pacific church partners from across the region with a focus on climate resilience and ending gender-based violence.

National Director Dr Sureka Goringe also reflects on the two days spent with church leaders at the Christian Conference of Asia. She concludes:

We who follow Christ are called to rollup our sleeves and step into a suffering world with good news for the poor, healing for the sick, and freedom for the oppressed. We are called for such a time as this.

Are we ready?

Thank you for journeying with UnitingWorld and our partners to support the Anawim*. Your prayers and generosity are creating a world where the hungry are filled, the bowed-down are lifted, and no one is left behind.

*Anawim is a Hebrew word referring to the bowed-down ones, the poor, those who have nothing left to lean on except God.

Originally published in UnitingWorld Update Issue 2 2026

Download a newsletter copy here.

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Disaster Preparation and Climate Change (Pacific Region), News, Project Updates
August 6, 2026

A small team from UnitingWorld visited Solomon Islands in the aftermath of Severe Tropical Cyclone Maila and saw first-hand the impact of your support.

Our partner, the United Church in the Solomon Islands (UCSI), continues to build climate resilience, prepare communities for disasters and promote healthy, safe relationships. Rev Siera Bird, UnitingWorld’s International Program Manager for the Pacific and a Solomon Islander, shares what she saw:

How is disaster preparedness making a difference?

UCSI has been training Community-Based Disaster Risk Management Committees village by village. The communities I visited were full of gratitude, because the training meant they knew exactly what to do when the cyclone Maila hit. The UCSI team are really excited to see the community disaster committees activating early, just as they were trained, and showing people what to do and getting them to safety. It was remarkable to hear that no lives were lost in such a severe cyclone.

What changes have you seen on gender equality?

In Vanua village, one of the first communities to take part in the UnitingWorld-supported Gender Equality Theology training back in 2019, I saw real change. One woman, Lovelyn, told me her husband, who once argued about women’s roles and work, now cooks and helps at home. Rev Wilson Agiri, who hosted us in his church, spent much of his time cooking for us and caring for the sick in his community, work that was traditionally left to women. It felt to me like a whole community shift is slowly happening through God’s grace.

What’s next: clean energy for Solomon Islands

We’re thrilled to be starting a new project to bring solar power to ten remote communities in Choiseul and Malaita Provinces, replacing costly diesel generators with reliable sustainable electricity for schools, health centres and churches that are used as evacuation centres. More than 8,600 people will benefit from safer nights, better healthcare, refrigeration for fishing families and stronger disaster response. To deliver this project, we will need your donations to co-invest with funding from the Australian Government’s REnew Pacific initiative. We are working in collaboration with Caritas Australia and Baptist World Aid Australia, in partnership with several Solomon Islands churches including UCSI.

What do you hope for the future of this partnership?

I pray my people can enjoy the abundance and fullness of life God intends. Gender-based violence is still at crisis levels and that weighs heavily on my heart. People are very vulnerable to disasters, but there are many things we can do to help. I hope and pray we will have a closer partnership built on shared wisdom between people in the Solomon Islands and Australia.

There’s so much we can learn from each other.

Thank you for making this transformative partnership in Solomon Islands possible through your support.

 

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News, Project Updates, Remote Area Education (India), Social Empowerment for Excluded Castes (India)
August 6, 2026

In 2008, just 38 per cent of children in targeted Dalit* communities along the India-Pakistan border were enrolled in school. Today, that number is 100 per cent, across a project that has grown from 10 villages to 20, now reaching 9,678 people. Whether you’ve been with us since the beginning or joined more recently, this is what your support has built.

*Dalit is a term derived from Sanskrit meaning “broken,” “oppressed,” or “downtrodden”.
It is a self-designation used by social groups across South Asia who were historically marginalized in Hindu caste society.

This year, we commissioned an independent evaluation of the project, confirming what these numbers already show: real, sustained change.

Your support helped deaf children like Dalen to continue his education and support his learning. He is progressing very well, now studying in Grade 10 and playing the sport of Kabaddi at a high level.

Back then, literacy across these communities sat at just 40 per cent. Today, the project runs 23 study centres across those 20 villages, reaching families in 2,700 households, and more than 90 students have gone on to graduate university or pursue postgraduate study, the first in their communities’ history to do so.

“Together, UnitingWorld and the Diocese of Amritsar have transformed entire Dalit communities — empowering children to pursue education, and creating lasting change,” says Om Prakash, former Project Coordinator.

 

Power is shifting hands too. Since leadership training began, 1,665 people have taken part, and Dalit communities who were once completely excluded from decision-making now hold leadership positions on village councils.
Self-help groups are turning small loans into real businesses: Jaspal Singh, from Dyal Bhatti village, bought a jute bagmaking machine with hers.

“Starting my own business has been the biggest change in my life,” she says.

But of course, so much remains unfinished. Families raising children with disabilities still struggle to access entitlements they’re owed. Financial pressures bear down on families, forcing teenagers to take up daily wage work, and adolescent girls remain at high risk for dropping out of school. Border tensions bring school closures and movement restrictions that interrupt everything.

The former Bishop of Amritsar, Rev Bishop P.K. Samantaroy told us, “Getting to all of them and doing all the good we can is what the next chapter requires.”

by
News
August 6, 2026

It’s often said there aren’t as many young people in our churches today, but the UCA has an impressive network of schools across the country, helping shape and inspire students to make a difference in the world.

UnitingWorld engages with schools in a number of ways, including running in-class activities, providing chapel resources and supporting students to fundraise for other young people around the world.
For the first time in 17 years, a formal gathering of educators, principals, board members and chaplains took place in June. Hosted by The Queensland Synod and The Lakes College in Queensland, the Uniting Connections Conference gathered around 70 people from 17 schools, colleges and other groups from across four Synods.

UnitingWorld’s Mardi Lumsden was there to connect and raise the profile of UnitingWorld as part of the extended Uniting Church family.

“It was great to hear that service and caring for others are really important for helping young people understand themselves and the world,” she said.

 

If you are interested in how UnitingWorld can connect with your school, please contact Mardi on mardil@unitingworld.org.au.

by
News
August 6, 2026

Vegetables were not a regular part of the diet for Siti, a 25-year-old homemaker, her husband and young daughter. They relied on traveling vegetable sellers who visited their village on Alor Island only a couple of times a month.

But after seeing positive changes in her neighbours who had joined the Healthy Kitchen program, Siti became interested in growing her own food. This work is conducted by our partner, the Christian Evangelical Church in Timor, Nusa Timur Tenggara, eastern Indonesia, with support from UnitingWorld and the Australian Government through the Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP).

The program team provided her with seven types of fruit and vegetable seedlings, enabling her to transform her small 3 x 5 metre yard into a productive home garden. Within just three months, her garden began to yield results, and she started to feed her family with fresh home-grown produce. Despite taking her first steps to a more nutritious diet, when Siti became pregnant again, she was diagnosed with Chronic Energy Deficiency, a condition that increases health risks for both mother and baby. During this critical time, access to adequate nutrition is even more essential.

The Healthy Kitchen program team responded by providing additional support – four laying hens, whose eggs became an important source of protein for the family. With a more consistent and balanced diet, Siti went on to have a healthier pregnancy and safely delivered her second child, who weighed a healthy 3.5 kilograms. Siti can now harvest fresh vegetables from her garden every day, and her family has consistent protein intake throughout the week from the eggs.

During times of abundant harvest, she also sells the excess produce to supplement the household income.

Siti’s story shows that meaningful change can begin with a simple initiative.

With the right support, small steps can grow into sustainable solutions that strengthen household food security and improve family nutrition.

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Disaster Preparation and Climate Change (Pacific Region), News, Project Updates
August 6, 2026

The recent signing of the partnership agreement between the Uniting Church in Australia and EKT represents an important step in formalising a relationship that has already been growing through trust, friendship and shared faith, and expresses our commitment to walk together in Christ.

Rev Apwee Ting, International Partnerships Manager at UnitingWorld recenly visited Tuvalu and shared his insights:

Although my recent visit was my first time setting foot in Tuvalu, it felt like visiting friends because of my years of online conversations with the leaders of the Congregational Christian Church of Tuvalu (EKT).
UnitingWorld has been heavily engaged with EKT over the past few years, discussing issues that are important for the people of Tuvalu.

I have appreciated the opportunity to listen to EKT’s perspectives regarding the Australia-Tuvalu Falepili Union Treaty and the experiences of Tuvaluan PALM workers who are living and working in Australia. These conversations have reminded me that partnership begins with listening.

During my visit, I was deeply moved by the resilience and faith of the people in Tuvalu. Living with the realities of climate change, they continue their witness through hope, prayer and community. Their challenges are not only environmental or political. They also are spiritual, touching questions of identity, land and the future.

As a church, we are called not simply to stand in solidarity from a distance but to accompany our Tuvaluan friends with humility and compassion.

I returned from Tuvalu with gratitude, renewed hope and a deeper conviction that God calls us to walk together in faith, especially with communities facing the difficult challenges.

UnitingWorld is working with various UCA Synods to support Tuvalu settlers in Australia to gather and establish their faith communities.

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Blogs, Campaigns, Project Updates
August 6, 2026

We who follow Christ are called to roll up our sleeves and step into a suffering world with good news for the poor, healing for the sick, and freedom for the oppressed.

We are called for such a time as this.
Are we ready?

I’ve just spent two days with the Christian Conference of Asia, sitting with church leaders who between them carry the hopes of fifty million Christians across this region. I asked them what keeps them awake at night. The answer I heard most was forced migration and statelessness.

Desperate people crossing borders in search of safety and a livelihood because of climate change, poverty and conflict.

Young people leaving because there is no work. Families abandoning traditional land as harvests fail. The same forces, again and again, falling hardest on those least able to absorb them.

And yet what I heard, again and again, were stories of people of faith stepping into the breach to love their neighbours, no matter where they came from. 

In Indonesia, our church partners in Nusa Timur Tenggara have built a “House of Hope” for survivors of trafficking.

In the Philippines, churches of every denomination shelter and defend migrant workers far from home. Rev Charissa Suli, President of the Uniting Church in Australia, spoke of communities losing their ancestral land to rising seas, reminding us that we cannot separate people’s suffering from the forces driving it: climate change, inequality and conflict.

In Tuvalu, our own Rev Apwee Ting saw it again recently, where rising seas aren’t a future risk but a present reality. The new partnership agreement between the Uniting Church in Australia and the Congregational Christian Church of Tuvalu is our answer to exactly this: standing with church partners so people can live, work and sustain their families in the place they call home.

It’s the same work our partners in places like Sumba are doing right now, helping families hold their ground before hardship forces them to leave.

Thank you to the many people who donated to support that vital work in Sumba and beyond.

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News
July 21, 2026

You’re invited!

Pacific Voices of Hope | Parramatta, 17 August

Join us for an inspiring conversation with esteemed leaders, theologians and project officers from our partner churches across the Pacific.

We will explore how Pacific churches are:

  • Responding to climate change
  • Advancing gender equality and women’s leadership
  • Living out faith through community action
  • Strengthening hope and resilience in their communities

Plus, we will sing and celebrate!

At a time when there is so much global gloom why not enjoy a dose of hope that sees possibilities.

EVENT DETAILS

PACIFIC VOICES OF HOPE
Faith in Action for Climate Justice and Gender Equity

WHEN: Monday 17 August, 4pm

WHERE: Centre for Ministry, The Uniting Church in Australia, 16 Masons Dr, North Parramatta

AGENDA: Presentations 4:15 pm – 5:15 pm; Conversations from 5:15 pm onwards

DINNER: (optional at 5.15 pm- $10 contribution towards dinner): Please advise number of people attending and any dietary requirements

RSVP Essential (by Mon 10 Aug)
RSVP to Barry Higgins at BarryH@unitingworld.org.au

by
News
June 9, 2026

This year’s UnitingWorld Sunday is almost here and resources are now on the website. 

Across the Pacific, Asia and Africa, the Uniting Church walks alongside partner churches doing extraordinary things: lifting families out of poverty, helping communities adapt to climate change, opening up education for children, and standing up for justice. These are people of deep faith and remarkable courage, pursuing the abundant life Jesus promised, for everyone.

This year’s UnitingWorld Sunday is your chance to celebrate our global neighbours and the church family we’re part of. Join churches across Australia on June 28 (or any date that suits your calendar).

The theme is Life, Abundantly, drawn from John 10:10. At the heart of the service is an inspiring video sermon from our National Director, Dr Sureka Goringe, exploring how God is at work through our partners to create extraordinary change (coming soon!).

Explore this year’s resources, including the complete liturgy and order of service, video sermon, a children’s talk, and presentation materials, everything you need to lead a meaningful service.

Explore the resources and liturgy here.

Want to go further? Get in touch with your closest Church Engagement Team member to order printed booklets and donation envelopes, ask any questions, or simply let us know you’ll be using the service this year. We’d love to hear from you!

Let’s celebrate the abundant life God offers, and the global church family we’re part of.