(Transcript from World News Australia Radio)
Australia is the lucky country: its people generous and friendly and its infrastructure world-class.
That's the view of Ethiopian man Yared Wolde who's been here to raise money for his school.
He's been touched by individuals' generosity, but Yared Wolde says he's confused by a government that he thinks is not representing its people.
Ryan Emery reports.
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Yared Wolde came to Australia determined to have two-thirds of his young students sponsored by Christmas.
But he ended up with financial lifelines for all 156 of his students.
His eyes widen and his smile broadens when he talks about the generosity of Australians.
"It's an amazing country. You have everything. Absolutely fantastic country that you have and I think everybody's proud of that. And I can see some people and they're really proud of that and the people, their attitudes, especially just really amazing because everywhere I go the people are welcoming me and I'm just so happy to be here. The infrastructure you have is amazing. Everything, I just can't count: 'this and that' because it's overwhelming for me."
But Yared Wolde is confused about why the government doesn't appear to representing the values of its people.
The Coalition government, as part of its commitment to return the nation's budget to a surplus, will cut foreign aid by 4.5 billion dollars over the next four years.
It means Australia will continue to fall short of its international commitment to allocate 0.7 per cent of its gross national income to foreign aid - a commitment linked to meeting the United Nations Millennium Develoment Goals.
"Yeah, that's the most shocking thing I heard. For me, I never expect because the people are really generous. Why is the government? What's wrong with the government? Is there are problem or are there different people called government? The government represents the people and the people are very generous. What's the difference? I was thinking, that coming from Africa, I don't understand some of the stuff. So that's why I'm surprised about the new government."
Jacqui Gilmour is from the charity Hope for Children and has been helping Yared with his school.
She says she struggles to explain to the 27 year old, who she met when he was a small child at an orphanage in Ethiopia, why the new government has reduced foreign aid spending.
"There is no explanation. We should be giving more. Individual people in Australia want to give more. They want to be attached to projects. They want to be assisted to see who's the best operator out there and how can we give. But, no, the federal government is really lagging behind on this and it's a big disappointment, having worked in the sector for a long time."
Yared Wolde says Ethiopia has a booming economy, one of the fastest in Africa, but it's creating more problems for the poor.
Inflation is high, making living more expensive.
Yared Wolde says the disparity is growing between Ethiopia's poor and the rest of society.
"The thing we have there is only the rich people are getting richer and the poor are left over. So for those ones, we need that help especially this time, otherwise these poor people will be left over because these rich people they can go rich and these poor people will be left behind."
Jacqui Gilmour says the Australian government is involved in some projects in Ethiopia and has appointed an ambassador to Ethiopia, but she agrees with Yared Wolde that with Ethiopia's rising population and rapid economic expansion a gulf is widening.
"There's so much to be done. Since I've been working there in Ethiopia, the population's gone from 30 million to 91 million and there's so much work to be done. And the longer we leave the timespan to do good work, the harder the work is. So nearly every program I run in Ethiopia is actually buried because of numbers. Just too many people turn up. Too many people wanting support. Too many people need encouragement, or a help or want to be on the microfinance program so doing good work is difficult."
