While we can’t always give donors the direct experience of their potential impact, being able to communicate this effectively as a fundraiser can be the next best thing. A recent first-time visit to Papua New Guinea (PNG) gave Rob Daly at the Burnet Institute (Australia) valuable insights to engage supporters for two of Burnet’s flagship initiatives.
On the October trip, accompanying Director and CEO Professor Brendon Crabb AC, Rob saw firsthand the critical importance of Burnet’s groundbreaking work in tuberculosis (TB) and childhood stunting—and the urgent need for continuing philanthropic support.
This included a visit to Port Moresby General Hospital, where he first toured a new laboratory for antimicrobial resistance surveillance, then the TB wards, where patients occupy at least 60 per cent of the hospital beds.
“TB is a disease we are fortunate to have eliminated in Australia, but for our nearest neighbour, it’s the number one killer, with a significant impact on families, communities, and hospitals,” he says.
“It broke my heart to visit the paediatric TB ward and see tiny children on ventilators, struggling to breathe. Seeing all the hospital’s top-floor windows open to let the air circulate was a vivid reminder of the importance of indoor air quality and the importance it plays in reducing the spread of airborne diseases.”
The elimination of TB in PNG is a 10-year priority for Burnet, currently focused on several initiatives, including the SWEEP-TB (Systematic Community-Wide Engagement and Elimination Project for Tuberculosis) project in Daru in the Western Province. Using mobile chest X-ray, artificial intelligence, new drug treatments, and novel strategies for TB prevention, Burnet is seeking to screen as many people as possible across the 20,000-population, with a priority focus on children and adolescents, older adults, pregnant women, and people living with disabilities and HIV.
The objective of this ‘detect, treat and prevent TB’ program, running since 2022, is to significantly reduce TB’s transmission and create a scalable model of care that can be applied throughout PNG, as well as other TB-affected countries.
“The progress Burnet has already made with mobile X-rays and the test and treat program means we are a step closer to considering elimination of TB a possibility in PNG,” Rob says.
Travelling next to Kokopo (East New Britain Province), Rob visited St Mary’s Hospital, where he met staff who are applying Burnet’s research into tackling low birth weight and childhood stunting. Affecting nearly half of all children in PNG, childhood stunting has significant consequences for growth and development, learning, lifelong health and wellbeing—and, again, impacts entire communities.
Rob says he was “deeply moved” by the dedication of the St Mary’s staff, and the pride they showed in their work, giving babies and young children a healthier start in life.
“Burnet’s research has played a vital role in building the knowledge behind this work, but it’s the people on the ground who bring it to life. Seeing that partnership in action was truly inspiring.”
Rob was struck by the “simple yet brilliant” wall chart with multi-coloured Post-it notes, each one recording a child’s weight and height against the percentile for their age.
“As a parent, I remember my own nervousness waiting to find out my baby son’s growth. On this chart, the majority of babies were below the 3rd percentile, or terribly underweight, which is why they have been referred to the team. Each colour represents a different village or area in the province, with the volume of each colour helping staff to spot where support for addressing nutrition is most needed. It’s such a powerful example of how a low-tech solution can drive high-impact, life-saving decisions.”
Addressing childhood stunting is a key plank of Burnet’s broader Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies (HMHB) program in PNG, for which philanthropic support has been essential.
“This program has been supported almost entirely by donors from PNG and Australia, with over $7 million received over the past 10 years,” Rob says.
This has been achieved through a comprehensive multi-channel approach, including major gifts from individuals, corporates, trusts/foundations, and a bequest program, along with annual and regular giving appeals.
“In East New Britain, this support has been critical for allowing flexible deployment of funds where most needed, and catalytic for securing further government funding. Philanthropic support is also essential because these projects take time. These are 10+ year programs of work, built on partnership, trust, community, and commitment. A short-term band-aid approach just doesn’t work. With Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies, we’ve been fortunate to have supporters who have stayed the distance with us, seeing how we have used research to understand complex health issues, design and shape the solutions, and monitoring the progress.”
As Executive General Manager of Philanthropy and Supporter Engagement, Rob says the opportunity to see the Burnet’s in-country work in person was invaluable.
“It’s important to see and experience the work the organisation does and the issues we seek to address firsthand. You just can’t beat the impact of seeing it in person, especially the debilitating impact of these health issues on individuals, families and whole communities. I knew about the research and programs our teams are delivering, but I’ve come back with a different level of understanding of how just challenging the work is, and the story I can tell to engage support.”
The Global Philanthropic Asia Pacific team is privileged to be working with Rob and the Burnet Institute on projects spanning medical health research to public health, for the 30+ countries in which they work.
Burnet is unique in Australia and distinctive internationally in being both a medical research institute and an accredited non-government organisation (NGO). This makes it one of the few organisations globally with the expertise to conduct world-class discovery science and translate that directly into public health work, delivering solutions to the communities who need it most.
Read more about how you can support Burnet’s important work at: https://www.burnet.edu.au/support-us/
PHOTO GALLERY BELOW:
- Staff at Port Moresby General Hospital with Burnet Institute Director & CEO Professor Brendan Crabb AC (7th from right)
- Staff at St Mary’s Hospital with members of the Burnet Institute team
- Rob Daly, Executive GM, Philanthropy & Supporter Engagement at the Burnet Institute
- Open windows at Port Moresby General Hospital
- Growth percentile chart for girls at St Mary’s Hospital in Kokopo, East New Britain Province
