Adopt Change Founder Deborra-lee Furness honoured with United Nations Women for Peace Association Award

**PRESS RELEASE**

Friday 10 March 2017

ADOPT CHANGE FOUNDER DEBORRA-LEE FURNESS HONOURED WITH UNITED NATIONS WOMEN FOR PEACE ASSOCIATION AWARD

Adopt Change Founder and Patron, Deborra-lee Furness, will be honoured with a United Nations Women for Peace Association Award at the annual awards luncheon to be held in New York City on Friday, March 10 (Saturday 11 March 0200 AEST). The luncheon will celebrate the contribution of six humanitarians to help advance the goals of academic and charitable organisations that provide opportunities for women to partake in the global peace building process through social, cultural, educational and women empowerment programs.

The United Nations Women For Peace Association believes violence against women and girls is a criminal act that should not be tolerated. It honours those who are working tirelessly to eradicate these heinous crimes.

Furness has been recognised for her contribution as co-founder of Hopeland, an international, education, and advocacy community working towards a world where every child belongs to a loving and permanent family.

“Adopt Change would like to congratulate our founder, Deborra-lee Furness, on this outstanding award,” Renee Carter, CEO of Adopt Change said. “To be honoured by the United Nations Women for Peace Association is an amazing achievement and one that will help spread the messages of the organisations Deborra-lee is associated with, including Adopt Change and Hopeland. It’s inspiring to have someone of her calibre advocating for every child to have the opportunity to grow up in a permanent, loving family. The issue has never been more pressing.”

As founder of Adopt Change, Furness has been a passionate advocate in Australia for a similar cause to Hopeland. There are currently 30,000 children in Australia in need of a permanent home*. This coincides with adoption rates in Australia being at their lowest on record with only 196 Australian children adopted in 2016**.

In 2017 she will continue campaigning with Adopt Change and the other organisations she is heavily involved with.

ENDS

For interviews please contact Samantha Dybac, Sammway e: sjdybac@sammway.com.au p: 0411251373

Available for interview:
Deborra-lee Furness, Founder & Patron, Adopt Change NB. Deborra-lee is currently in New York so time differences will need to be accommodated.
Renee Carter, CEO, Adopt Change.

Website: www.adoptchange.org.au
Instagram: https://instagram.com/adoptchangeau/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/adoptchangeau
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AdoptChangeAU

Further information on: United National Women for Peace Association Awards 

https://www.unwomenforpeace.org/march-in-march-luncheon-1/

Hopeland https://ourhopeland.org/

About Adopt Change and National Adoption Awareness Week (NAAW)

Adopt Change believes that every child has a right to grow up in a permanent, loving family, and embraces adoption as a positive and important way of forming that family.
Adopt Change’s mission is to raise community awareness, encourage ethical reform, and empower all Australians to engage with issues affecting adoption.

Adopt Change is committed to working with community and governments to transform attitudes and laws affecting adoption in Australia.
Adopt Change advocates for open adoption as the first permanent option considered for children who cannot live with their family or kin and will otherwise spend their childhood in Out of Home Care.

National Adoption Awareness Week (NAAW) is coordinated by Adopt Change to promote reform of Australian adoption laws and practices to facilitate a pro-adoption community. NAAW was founded by Deborra-lee Furness in 2008 and is the second week of November each year. In 2017 NAAW will run from Sunday 12 – Saturday 18 November.

References

* At 30 June 2015 there were 29,359 children who had been in OOHC for over two years (AIHW 2016: 52). (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2016 Child Protection Australia 2014-15, AIHW, Canberra)

** There were 196 Australian child adoptions in total in 2015-16, comprised of 45 local adoptions and 151 known child adoptions, including 24 children 18 yrs of age or over, and 70 by a known-carer. 68 of these known-carer adoptions were from NSW. (AIHW) Source: AIHW 2016 Adoptions Australia 2015-16, AIHW, Canberra. http://www.aihw.gov.au/adoptions/