AFAP’s General Privacy Statement
Australian Foundation for the Peoples of Asia and the Pacific (AFAP)   ABN 42 002 568 005

1. Our commitment

AFAP is committed to the highest levels of customer service. This includes protecting your privacy. Any information that you provide to us remains private and is only used for the purposes outlined below. The identity of anyone who contacts us is kept confidential. We don’t rent, sell or exchange our contact lists.

2. AFAP

AFAP provides a range of services and facilities designed to assist the peoples of Africa, Asia and the Pacific by supporting projects that are environmentally and economically sustainable, gender balanced and supportive of the integrity and self-determination of local communities.  AFAP aims to improve the status of women, children, ethnic minorities, handicapped and other disadvantaged or marginalized sections of society.  AFAP maintains a relationship with you in order to provide opportunities for you to join in assisting our work.

3. Your personal information

AFAP collects personal information from you in order to provide services to you, and to do so at a cost effective level that ensures we can optimise the benefits to communities overseas. The personal information we typically ask you for is:

• contact details (name, address, e-mail, phone numbers)
• credit card details

We also maintain details of the AFAP services and facilities that you might typically use such as:

• child sponsorship
• AFAP Newsletter
• project donations
• AFAP Annual Report

As an AFAP enquirer or supporter you may elect to remain anonymous. However, if you choose not to provide your personal information, we may not be able to provide you with the services you require (e.g. a tax receipt) or the level of services on which we pride ourselves. While remaining an anonymous donor is possible for project donations and appeals, AFAP does regard it as important that people who choose to sponsor a child are known by name for the benefit and protection of the sponsored child.

4. How information is stored

AFAP collects personal information in a number of ways, including:

• directly from you, when you provide information by phone, SMS or in application forms
• from some third parties to whom you have given permission to share your personal information
• from publicly available sources
• from our own records of how you use our services and facilities
• from your use of our Internet site

5. Privacy and the internet

Our site uses security encrypted response forms when personal and financial details are required. The security we use between your browser and our web site is SSL (Secure Sockets Layer). To confirm that your browser supports SSL security, you should see a yellow solid key on a blue background (Netscape), a yellow padlock (Netscape or Internet Explorer) or a black padlock (Safari).

AFAP’s web site contains links to other sites. Other sites may also have links to our site. In either case, we are not responsible for the content, privacy practices or business practices of any website or company except our own.

AFAP compiles statistical information about the use of our web site so that we can constantly improve its usefulness. We may track your visits to our web site through the use of ‘cookies’ or equivalent technology. If you prefer not to allow the use of these tracking technologies you should be able to adjust your browser to either turn them off or to notify you when they are being used. We use the tracking information only for the purpose of improving our web site and do not disclose it to any third party.

6. Information Security

We take all reasonable steps to protect all information which we hold (including your personal information) from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. We take all reasonable steps to hold information secure in an electronic or physical form.  Information is stored in access controlled premises or in electronic databases requiring logins and passwords. All staff having access to confidential information are subject to confidentiality obligations.

7. How information is used

The information collected enables AFAP to provide and improve its services to you such as processing donations, providing receipts, sending information about AFAP and providing new opportunities for you to assist people in need and their communities.

Occasionally we may use external suppliers to contact you or help with mailing or texting information to you. These suppliers are required to sign an agreement to keep your personal information confidential.

We may however, disclose information regarding our membership database to AusAID in order to comply with accreditation criteria, where the law requires us to do so.

When you are sponsoring a child your contact details remain confidential within AFAP and are not disclosed to AFAP’s overseas Delivery Organisations. Only your supporter number, name, gender and country is used to maintain the link to your sponsored child.

8. Accuracy of information

AFAP takes all reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information we hold is accurate, complete and up-to-date. However the accuracy of that information depends to a large extent on the information you provide. That is why we recommend that you:

• Let us know if there are any errors in your personal information
• Keep us up to date with changes to personal information such as your name or address

9. Giving you control

AFAP believes that the relationship you have with us is one that should be comfortable and appropriate to your needs.

If at any time you do not wish to receive any communications or marketing materials, please let us know so that your preferences can be registered.

You can request access at any time to personal information we hold about you. We may charge you a fee where access is provided, but only if we incur costs in providing such access.

10. Privacy questions

If you have any questions in relation to privacy or wish to receive a copy of our privacy policy, please contact our office by email, phone, or letter, and direct your enquiry to our privacy officer/Office Manager.

11. Contacting us

You can contact us by:

Sending an email to admin@afap.org

Calling our office on 02 9906 3792

Posting a letter to AFAP,
PO Box 12,
Crows Nest NSW 1585