A gender campaigner, refugee advocate, education specialist and appearance activist will showcase how youth can advocate for human rights at the free Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development (AYAD) Forum 2013 in Melbourne on April 9.

AYAD Ruby J. Murray, who volunteered in Indonesia, has received rave reviews for her debut novel which unfolds across multiple timelines in Jakarta.

Australian Ambassador Designate to Vietnam, Hugh Borrowman, recently paid a visit to AYAD Melissa Reid’s Host Organisation, VietHealth.

On World Humanitarian Day AYAD Jo McIntosh is calling on her fellow volunteers to tell the world about what they are doing to help others.

For International Youth Day 2012 we embrace the theme “Building a Better World: Partnering with Youth” by recognising the support of our Australian Partner Organisations.

AYAD Eliza Percival is volunteering with FilmAid, an organisation that will bring life-saving information and hope to the refugee community this World Refugee Day.

On World Ocean’s Day AYAD Sue Lyn Lim tells of her underwater adventure conducting a coral reef survey with her Host Organisation, Reef Check Indonesia.

It is estimated that there may be as many as four to six million mines and unexploded ordnances in Cambodia left as a legacy from thirty or so years of internal and regional conflict. To date more than 19,000 people have been killed by landmines in Cambodia and over 44,000 injured........

The AYAD Program has a distinguished history working with communities, organisations and governments across the Asia Pacific to fight poverty, empower local people and improve the quality of life of communities in developing nations. Since 1998 the AYAD Program has sent over 2700 volunteers to live, work and make a difference in 21 countries across the Asia Pacific region. In 2010 the AYAD Program is excited to welcome not only a new country but a new region to our growing family as the first AYAD volunteers are mobilised to Ghana in Africa.

AYAD Kate Flower is working with leading Cambodian legal rights organisation, International Bridges to Justice, to help make lasting change to Cambodia's courts system.

AYAD Laura Davison is helping the Port Moresby Cancer Relief Society to educate the community about preventing cancer - Papua New Guineas fourth most common disease.

As a tradesperson, if you are anything like me, you are probably thinking that the AYAD Program is a pretty fancy sort of a program for a carpenter - but I can tell you that being part of the AYAD program was one of the most challenging, but rewarding things I have ever done. I felt honoured that a regular carpenter could be of use in this way. Not only that, but I really felt like carpentry was a job where I could provide a useful way to improve others skills.

AYAD in Thailand Helen Henderson shares her story on World AIDS Day

Tina Macumber spent 12 months as an AYAD in Samoa as a Cricket Development Officer for the Samoa International Cricket Association (SICA) with the support of her Australian Partner Organisation The International Cricket Council East Asia Pacific (ICC-EAP) . While on assignment as an AYAD Tina assisted SICA to develop a womens cricket program which also provided her with the opportunity to continue to play the game she loves. Tina finished her AYAD assignment in September of this year and has since been employed as the CEO for SICA.

AYAD Allison Gosnold is helping a Bangladeshi school improve its curriculum and teaching practices.

Butchers’ paper is not usually considered an official document, yet on 11 September 2006 a delegation led by the Edmund Rice Centre for Justice and Community Education took four large sheets of butchers’ paper to the Australian Parliament. The butchers’ paper contained messages from community leaders from the Pacific nation of Kiribati seeking to inform Australian parliamentarians and the Australian community to the effects that climate change is having on their islands.

AYAD Frances Oakley is encouraging Indonesian teens to play an active part in local, national and global decision making as part of International Youth Day.

For most Australians, the word “Bali” conjures up images of a cheap holiday amongst tropical flowers, world class waves and touts selling “Rolex” watches on Kuta Beach. But beyond the rice paddies of Ubud, the concealing gloss of tourism dissipates to reveal the reality of everyday life in the fishing villages of the Buleleleng district, North Bali. Here, exploiting coastal resources provides people with a meagre entrance to the cash economy.

Australian Youth Ambassador Amie Hope will soon be using her experience supporting recent arrivals in Canberra to better prepare Burmese refugees for a new life in Australia. Amie is readying for a nine month volunteer placement with the International Organization for Migration – Regional Office in Bangkok where she will work to enhance a cultural orientation course available to all refugee and special humanitarian entrants prior to their departure for Australia.

AYAD Carly Sheehan discovers the true meaning of building community in the diligence, pride and hard work of the local people in flood-ravaged Bangladesh. Here she shares her story: Having enough food on the table is one of the cornerstones of food security in the developing world. But in Bangladesh many of the poorest and most vulnerable have struggled to save their crops from annual floods and ensure enough income to feed their communities throughout tough years. The CARE Bangladesh food security program, Strengthening Household Ability to Respond to Development Opportunities (SHOUHARDO), looks to address the underlying causes of food insecurity by reaching some of the poorest and most vulnerable households in four regions of Bangladesh.

Volunteer Louise was with KOTO for two and a half years as chef trainer. The AYAD Program congratulates Founder of Know One Teach One (KOTO), Jimmy Pham, who has been recognised by the World Economic Forum (WEF) as a Young Global Leader.

AYAD Carly Sheehan discovers the true meaning of building community in the diligence, pride and hard work of the local people in flood-ravaged Bangladesh. Here she shares her story: Having enough food on the table is one of the cornerstones of food security in the developing world. But in Bangladesh many of the poorest and most vulnerable have struggled to save their crops from annual floods and ensure enough income to feed their communities throughout tough years. The CARE Bangladesh food security program, Strengthening Household Ability to Respond to Development Opportunities (SHOUHARDO), looks to address the underlying causes of food insecurity by reaching some of the poorest and most vulnerable households in four regions of Bangladesh.

Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development Build for underprivileged families More than 30 young Australians donned gloves and tools to assist low income families in rural Bangladesh with building their homes in February this year. Local non-governmental organisation, Habitat for Humanity Bangladesh, along with the Australian Youth Ambassador for Development (AYAD) volunteers helped to build two new homes for two underprivileged local families.

AYAD Scott Graham spent 9 months on the island of Bohol in the Philippines. During that time he discovered great beauty in both the land and the people, which has inspired him to continue to work with them beyond his assignment. Scott’s original AYAD assignment was for 6 months with the World Agroforestry Centre on Bohol. He was working with the staff of the Landcare Foundation of the Philippines to develop monitoring and evaluation tools to measure the success of their training on soil conservation, agroforestry, organic agriculture and livelihood improvement.

In Cambodia, you are considered an ‘orphan’ even if you still have one parent alive, mainly because it is next to impossible to be a single parent. There are no childcare options if you have no immediate family, and surviving through subsistence farming is a full-time job. Realistically, if a parent is looking after a young child alone, they are not able to work, which means they are unable to grow enough food to survive.

14th April 2011 Child mortality is a major issue for developing countries where children often die of easily preventable diseases such as diarrhoea, pneumonia, malnutrition and measles. In Bangladesh the mortality rate for children under five is 7.7% or 77 deaths per every 1000 live births (UN 2006). This is in direct contrast to Australia whose mortality rate for children under five is 0.6% (or 6 deaths per every 1000 live births). The burden of child mortality is primarily held by the poor, with the poorest 20% of the population having an under-five child mortality rate almost double that of the richest 20%.

In-country orientation is a key training element for newly arrived AYADs in every country but as our East Timor AYADs discovered, it isn’t necessarily about sitting in a classroom. Here Intake 26 AYAD Jennifer Ward shares the fun (and controversy) of the Amazing Race: Dili. The midday heat in Dili saps the energy of any crazy malai (visitor) that dares venture out of doors. Noon is a time for sleeping and eating, stealing shade, or sprawling in front of a fan, not for a frenzied race around town. Even the infamous Hashford Harriers save their gruelling runs for the afternoon.

Whether it’s cycling through the crazy traffic in Hanoi, Vietnam or trekking through calf deep mud in Bangladesh, there’s been no shortage of adventures for the documentary crew following some of our AYADs around in their daily lives. The documentary crew from The Production Hub has been working closely with the AYAD Program and AusAID to capture the experiences of our AYADs as they go about their assignments in locations across the Asia Pacific.

As an archipelago of small islands in the Pacific, the Solomon Islands are feeling the direct impacts of climate change on communities and the environment. For AYAD Gillian Cook, raising awareness on not only the impact but also possible responses to climate change is a community affair that needs to reach an international audience and the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen is an important step in that process.

Recognising Australia’s International volunteer contribution International Volunteer Day provides the nation with an opportunity to recognise the contribution of Australian volunteers and their impact on communities locally, nationally and internationally. Over 520 Australians embraced the opportunity to volunteer through the Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development (AYAD) Program and Volunteering for International Development (VIDA) Programs throughout 2010 in over 20 countries within Asia, the Pacific and Africa.