World of Difference 2008 Graduates

Anne Johnson � Successful Living Donor 2008

Cause: KidSafe, South Australia

After working as a paediatric intensive care nurse at Adelaide Women's and Children's Hospital, Anne Johnson felt the need to work to reduce child injury and deaths.

Anne has been an Associate Professor of Public Health at Flinders University for over 7 years and is applying her extensive knowledge about child safety promotion and her experience in health promotion with KidSafe South Australia (SA), a non-government organisation devoted to preventing unintentional death and injury to Australian children. Anne has been volunteering with KidSafe since 1993 and is excited about providing full time support to KidSafe to work with rural and remote communities to reduce child injury and deaths, especially in the 0-4 year age group.

Anne is consulting and working collaboratively with South Australians in rural and remote communities on the development of a SA rural and remote child safety promotion strategy and action plan. She will also develop relationships with several communities across the State and strengthen their links with KidSafe SA to support and advocate child injury prevention issues.

Peter Cossey � Successful Living Donor 2008

Cause: CuriousWorks

Thanks to the Vodafone Australia Foundation, Peter Cossey is spending his 12 months working with CuriousWorks to implement their All Around You project.

All Around You is a grass roots community arts platform with a long term vision to empower marginalised communities of the Asia-Pacific by building a platform for enabling talented young people (under 35) in regional, remote and under-resourced areas to become ongoing makers of innovative, creative media.

Peter's background in the digital media industry, including online publishing systems, interactive multimedia and educational video games, make him perfectly qualified to help CuriousWorks create this community connecting an artist empowering virtual space.

Blanche Danastas � Successful Living Donor 2008

Cause: North Queensland Conservation Council

Marine biologist and conservationist Blanche Danastas went from volunteer to full time employee of the North Queensland Conservation Council, and through the Australian Marine Wildlife Guardians group (which she founded), is working to bring attention to the plight of charismatic marine wildlife such as turtles, dugongs, sawfish & coastal dolphins, who are especially prone to harm from pollution & habitat destruction.

Marine biologist and conservationist Blanche Danastas went from volunteer to full time employee of the North Queensland Conservation Council, and through the Australian Marine Wildlife Guardians group (which she founded), is working to bring attention to the plight of charismatic marine wildlife such as turtles, dugongs, sawfish & coastal dolphins, who are especially prone to harm from pollution & habitat destruction.

With help from the Vodafone Australia Foundation, Blanche launched her first campaign �Saving Australian Snubfins�. The Snubfin is Australia's only native dolphin, and Blanche�s short term goal is to avert a possible local extinction of snubfins. Her long-term goal is to work with all sectors towards conservation of charismatic marine wildlife through habitat protection and removal or mitigation of threats.

Liz Muir � Successful Living Donor 2008

Cause: SecondBite

23,000 homeless Victorians are in desperate need of food every night. And with $5.3 billion worth of food wasted in Victoria every year, Liz Muir and SecondBite believe more can be done.

SecondBite are committed to making a positive difference to people by identifying sources of good, quality food that may otherwise go to waste and delivering it safely to agencies where it can be used to prepare fresh, nutritious meals for those in need.

In 2007, SecondBite rescued 132 tonnes of fresh surplus food which would have otherwise gone to waste. That's enough food to provide 264,000 hearty, nutritious meals for the hungry and homeless.

Liz is using her sales, marketing and copywriting skills to help SecondBite achieve their mission to provide food for 1 million meals by 2010. With help from the Vodafone Australia Foundation, Liz acts as a PR, Advertising and Marketing executive for the organisation, creating awareness and obtaining funding and sponsorship support to enable the organisation to grow, which can in turn allow SecondBite do what they do best � help people in need.