Setting of - well nearly!

Welcome to my little adventure. Thanks for tagging along for the ride.

What am I upto?

• I will be working with GOAL primarily as their financial controller in Malawi.


• I start my year with a little diversion to DRC to commence three weeks project work around ECHO reporting.


• This is not just an elaborate excuse for a tan!

So who are GOAL?

• GOAL is an international humanitarian organisation dedicated to the alleviation of suffering among the poorest of the poor in the developing word. It was founded in 1977 by sports journalist John O'Shea who is the organisation's Chief Executive. It is non-denominational, non-governmental and non-politcal.


• Since its inception, GOAL has responded to almost every major natural and man-made disaster and catastrophe, spent over E400million on humanitarian programmes and employed over 1,200 GOALies. Besides implementing its own programmes GOAL works with partner organisations with similar objectives. It has achieved this on an administrative cost base of less than 5% per annum.


• GOAL is currently working in Niger, North and South Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Sierra Leonne, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, India, Honduras, and Sri Lanka.


• To find out more about GOAL visit www.goal.ie

So what will I be doing in Malawi?

• My role is to oversee the team responsible for financial reporting from Malawi. I anticipate a lot of budgets and donor reporting!

A little more interesting is what GOAL actually does in Malawi.

• GOAL has been in Malawi since April 2002 when it initially responded to the famine of that year. since then operations in the region have changed with the times to meet the beneficiaries needs.


• A deadly combination of chronic poverty, bad weather, a bad harvest and a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS left almost 5million people in Milawi in need of food aid in the early part of 2006. every month, GOAL distributed maize, oil and beans to over 34,000 households in Nsanje district. GOAL also provided technical support to Ministry of Health Supplementary Feeding Programmes in Nsanje and Blantyre districts.


• GOAL's other programmes promote winter cropping for the dry season and growing techniques designed to increase crop diversification including, community gardens; small-scale irrigation; soil and water conservation; compost-making and 40 tree nurseries producing over 500,000 saplings,


• GOAL also implements a HIV/AIDS programme in Blantyre and Balaka districts which provides support, treatmet and care to those infected and affected by HIV/AIDS.

How can you reach me?

• I finally have an email address it is julia.awty@googlemail.com, or


• You can find me on facebook, or


• You could leave a message for me here!