Dear ABV community,

Given the exceptional circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and the updated travel advice issued by the Federal Government this morning,  all ABV volunteers are being brought home effective immediately.

ABV regards public health and safety as a paramount concern and we will be advising volunteers  scheduled to travel about changes to their travel plans in the coming weeks.

We were hopeful to be able to resume volunteer deployments by late April but as information is changing daily, at present we will not be planning any further deployments until mid to late May, however this remains entirely dependent on the state of the pandemic so we will update you accordingly.

These are uncertain times, and this is unchartered waters for us all. The only way through it is together – our network and support systems have never been more important. We are a community of people who strive to serve others and now we must continue that, by taking care of ourselves so that our work can continue.

We remain committed to the partnerships we have and are currently looking into alternative innovative approaches to assignments including providing remote support and deploying support from within the communities we are serving. We will certainly be reaching out to you, our valuable ABV community, to discuss some new approaches as things progress.

We appreciate your support as we work through this together and remain, as always, grateful to be surrounded by such giving people.

Take care of yourselves, and we will continue to keep you updated via our website and other channels as and when things change.

Liz Mackinlay, ABV CEO