Roundup: Easter messages, mining, social benefit bonds, stolen children

All the lost children

I soon saw, as I combed archives for clues to my mother’s history, that the evidence about stolen children had been around us for a long time. We had somehow, collectively, agreed not to notice.

Helping out returns its own reward

It’s the scheme that helps you make money by helping others. In an Australian first, investors will be rewarded for directing their funds into programs that assist the vulnerable. The state government yesterday announced details of a Social Benefit Bond trial with UnitingCare Burnside. The trial aims to raise $7 million in private investments by July to fund the New Parent and Infant Program (Newpin).

First social benefit bond signed in NSW

Businesses and wealthy individuals in New South Wales have the chance to feel good and make money by investing in community welfare. The state government plan, whereby investors direct funds to community programs, is the first of its kind in Australia. The first contract for a social benefit bond was signed with child and family support group UnitingCare Burnside.

Church fears the impact of mining

Religion has entered the debate on the region’s resources boom, as the Uniting Church prepares to take its concerns to a state gathering in Sydney next week. The New England North West Presbytery of The Uniting Church has issued a statement questioning the impact of mining activity on prime agricultural land, water resources and forests, including the Leard and Pilliga state forests.

Hope and compassion top season’s messages

In a wide-ranging message, Uniting Church Moderator the Rev. Brian Brown covered compassion for the marginalised, obsession with material goods, global warming and public policy. ‘‘As caring and compassionate Australians in a country that prides itself in standing by the battler, can we stop to think for a moment about what we are settling for by way of public policy these days?’’ he said.