Macquarie Group Foundation | 2024 Annual Review
Our people support the five Award winning organisations by volunteering their time via Ambassador Networks identifying areas of opportunity, driving initiatives, and providing support and connectivity.
In this video, hear from five Ambassadors on how they’re supporting our Awardees to help build a better future for communities around the world.
In this video, Sarah Teddy, the headmistress of Kukum SDA School in Honiara, talks about the challenges children with scabies face at school and how the WSP’s work has helped children, families and communities in the Solomon Islands and Fiji.
In the past year we spotlighted the work of the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute World Scabies Program.
In FY2024, the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute’s World Scabies Program (WSP) completed its mass drug administration (MDA) program to treat scabies in Fiji and undertook surveys to assess the reduction in both scabies' prevalence and severity.
In the Solomon Islands, WSP commenced its second round of MDA and continued providing close support to the Neglected Tropical Disease Unit at the Ministry of Health. WSP has also completed scabies prevalence surveys in Kiribati and French Polynesia and engaged with other countries seeking guidance on scabies control.
In FY2024, Last Mile Health’s programs in Liberia, Malawi and Ethiopia have seen demonstrable evidence of the power of technology to improve health worker training and community-level data collection at scale.
In FY2024, positive results from the World Mosquito Program's (WMP) pilot mosquito community releases in Vientiane, Laos, prompted new private and public sector investment to enable roll-out for the remaining areas of the city, along with urban areas in four additional provinces. The first mosquito releases in El Salvador commenced, and Wolbachia prevalence in Cali, Colombia exceeded 50 per cent in the majority of release areas. Many of the Wolbachia intervention communities have reported low dengue case numbers despite high incidence rates in surrounding cities.
In FY2024, Social Finance US continued to scale its talent finance portfolio, expanding high quality career training to help unemployed and underemployed people participate in the modern economy.
Social Finance launched a Pay It Forward Fund in Colorado to prepare residents for in-demand, well-paying jobs in industries including IT, cybersecurity, and health care. Seeded with over $A12 million from multiple philanthropic sources, the Colorado Pay It Forward Fund provides different kinds of financing for learners, training providers, and employers. For each kind of financing, all loan repayments are recycled back into the Fund to support future learners.
In 2023, Social Finance launched the Social Finance Institute, a unique field-building platform. The platform leverages insights from practitioners and experts to develop networks, tools, and actionable resources to advance outcomes-based, impact-first funding models to measurably improve people’s lives.
The Ocean Cleanup's System 03 brought a record haul of plastic to shore, returning back to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch for another season starting in February 2024. Since 2019, a total of 389,350 kilograms of plastic has now been removed from the Patch.
In March 2024, Interceptor 019 in Bangkok became the latest addition to the Rivers portfolio (technology solutions that intercept plastics in rivers before it reaches the ocean), while the very first Interceptor in Indonesia celebrated its five-year anniversary. To date, Interceptors have removed over 12 million kilograms of trash, working with local communities and stakeholders to prevent this rubbish from reaching the Ocean.
In early 2023, a new fundraising platform was launched, making it easier than ever for people to get involved and support the Ocean Cleanup to help rid the oceans of plastic.
Image: Susan Clear (left) and Leonard Sprik (right), Macquarie relationship manager, The Ocean Cleanup, viewing operations at Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
Susan Clear from the Macquarie Group Foundation travelled to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, to meet team members and other funders, as well as board The Ocean Cleanup’s ocean-bound vessels. And, together with Erin Shakespeare from the Macquarie Group Foundation and Macquarie’s local staff, visited Interceptor 007 in the water in Los Angeles, California, USA.
Image: From left - Dr Susanna Lake from the World Scabies Program, Oliver Sokana from the Ministry of Health and Medical Services, Julie Zinihite from the World Scabies Program and Anna Le Masurier.
In September 2023, Anna Le Masurier from the Macquarie Group Foundation travelled to Honiara, Solomon Islands, with the World Scabies Program, to observe local health workers undertaking scabies prevalence surveys and meet government officials.
Image: Rachel Engel (centre) with community health workers, local Ethiopian Government officials and team members from Last Mile Health
Rachel Engel from the Macquarie Group Foundation visited Ethiopia with Last Mile Health to see how the new blended learning training approach is being implemented and scaled to reach a national workforce of more than 40,000 community health workers. The team met government officials, health workers and community members.
Image: Susan Clear (far right) in New Jersey with team members from Social Finance and training provider Hudson County Community College.
Susan Clear from the Macquarie Group Foundation visited New Jersey, USA to meet stakeholders involved in The New Jersey Pay It Forward Program, including government, local funders and training providers.
