Forum at Essential Baby - Should the AVN be allowed to fundraise?

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Hi all,Would you have time to respond to the forum on Essential Baby (run by Fairfax Media) to a terribly incorrect article that you can read by clicking here? The forum can be found at http://www.essentialbaby.com.au/forums/index.php?showtopic=975684 & st=10 & gopid=14543839 & #entry14543839 and it is called - Should the AVN be allowed to fundraise? My response is below. You need to register to respond but it is free to register. I would really appreciate your help with this. Essential Baby has a very large number of young and first-time mums and I believe they are being misled by the biased information being presented there about the AVN and vaccination.Thanks so much,MerylPS - if you could share this on your other groups, Facebook pages, twitter, etc. and by email too, that would be great.Hi,It would have been good journalistic practice if e Davies would have contacted me prior to uploading her blog article on the AVN's charitable status. Had she done so, she might have made fewer mistakes and presented a more balanced article as well. Perhaps that was not her intention?For instance, the AVN is defined as a charity and has been one since 1996. We don't define ourselves in that way - the Office of Liquor Gaming and Racing (OLGR) does.We held an authority to fundraise since 1996.Due to complaints from Mr Ken McLeod, a member of an organisation called Stop the AVN whose stated goal is to force our group to close in any way they can, the Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) set out on a year-long investigation of our organisation - an investigation which was not within their jurisdiction and one which saw them ignore virtually all information provided to them and refuse to answer almost all questions posed by the AVN. At the end of this process, despite their lack of jurisdiction or accountability, they issued a public warning against our group.Based upon that public warning - and ONLY upon that public warning, the OLGR revoked our authority to fundraise.During the more than 18 months during which our authority was revoked, we were not allowed to fundraise or to accept donations or memberships from the general public. The reason for this is that the OLGR said that even though we had no valid fundraising certificate, we were still a charity and it was their determination that the AVN pursued a charitable purpose. Were this not so, we could accept donations and memberships with no restrictions.What e Davies and many of the responders to this forum are unaware of is the fact that once the government determines that you are a charity, you must abide by their rules which can be a huge burden to a small organisation like the AVN. There are no automatic tax breaks or concessions to charities - e is confusing the moniker 'charity' with the related but still completely different 'deductible gift recipient'.Being a charity means that we have to have our books audited every single year at a cost of many thousands of dollars. We have requirements about how we store our receipt books, the size of our collection box and whether it needs to have a lock and key or not (it does), what sorts of registers we need to keep and how we need to keep track of sales from the general public vs sales from existing members. All of these regulations add a crippling cost to our group and believe me, we would prefer NOT to be a charity for that reason. We get all of the risks and none of the benefits.Groups like Stop the AVN which has been abusing, harassing and threatening me and our members for over 3 years now regularly collects money from amongst their membership - and some of them even have donation forms on their websites - and yet, they do not have to account to anyone for how the money is spent. They are the ones who have manipulated loopholes - not the AVN.The AVN took the HCCC to the Supreme Court and won our case. The court said that the actions of the HCCC in both investigating and warning against the AVN were illegal (Ultra vires) and as a result, our authority to fundraise was reinstated.I feel that many of those who believe that the AVN is not a charity are totally unaware of the work we do. They are also unaware that the reason why I started this group and have devoted almost 20 years of my life to running it is that I have a child who was seriously injured by vaccines. I am a mother of 4 children and like you on this forum, my children are the most important people in my world - I would do anything for them. Protecting them was my job but I was not provided with the information I needed to do my job properly. I believe that to be grossly unfair so I started this group to redress the imbalance in information on this issue.Thousands of families with children who have been either killed or injured by vaccines have come to us over the years for information and support. We have helped them in any way we can.Tens of thousands of others have come to us for information to balance out the information their doctors or council clinics have given them. We have helped them in any way we can.Hundreds have come to us because they or their children have been discriminated against as a result of their vaccination status. Again, where we could, we provided assistance to help them protect their rights under the law.The AVN's information is sourced from peer-reviewed mainstream medical journals. We are an organisation comprising parents, health professionals and others who are interested in maintaining the right to freedom of choice in regards to health issues.We are NOT anti-vaccination and in fact, we never give medical advice as confirmed by the HCCC in its investigation. We provide information, support and assistance for Australian families who come to us because they need our help.You may vaccinate your children and if so, you obviously believe that the vaccines will protect them. Why are you concerned about them being exposed to healthy unvaccinated children?You may have a child too young to be vaccinated and be concerned about them being exposed to pathogenic viruses and bacteria before they have had a chance to be vaccinated. But are you aware that being fully vaccinated - and even being immune (the two are not the same) will not prevent you from carrying and transmitting viruses and bacteria? Are you also aware that many of the vaccine we use are live virus vaccines which can make the vaccinee infectious for up to 90 days following their vaccine? Do you separate your newborns and the immunocompromised from these individuals as is recommended by the vaccine manufacturers?Please don't let your fear of disease make you hateful towards other parents who are also trying to do the best they can to protect their children. If vaccines work, they protect the individual. If they don't protect the individual, please don't blame the unvaccinated for diseases in the vaccinated.And please, try to look at both sides of every issue before making a decision - even if that decision is simply about whether or not an organisation which the government calls a charity does, in fact, fulfill a charitable purpose.

Meryl Dorey,SpokespersonThe Australian Vaccination Network, Inc.Investigate before you vaccinateEditor,Living Wisdom MagazineFamily, Health, EnvironmentPO Box 177BANGALOW NSW 2479AUSTRALIAhttp://www.avn.org.auhttp://www.living-wisdom.comPhone: 02 6687 1699 FAX 02 6687 2032skype: ivmmagFreedom is not merely the opportunity to do as one pleases; neither is it merely the opportunity to choose between set alternatives. Freedom is, first of all, the chance to formulate the available choices, to argue over them -- and then, the opportunity to choose. - C. MillsThe authority of any governing institution must stop at its citizen's skin. - Gloria SteinemWe rely on the help and support of our members and subscribers to continue offering our services freely and without prejudice.Please consider helping us by joining the AVN as a member. Go to http://www.avn.org.au to become a member or donate to support our work.We also sell books, videos and DVDs on vaccination and other health issues. Go to http://shop.avn.org.au/ for more details.