Twelve clients took the hour-long bus trip with staff, then went bushwalking to the east-rim lookout to view the falls and on to the west-rim lookout to view the gullies. A National Parks ranger was on hand to provide information about the local fauna and flora.
Food for a barbecue lunch was kindly donated by Campbelltown businesses, El Sadik Supermarket Grocers and Campbelltown Meatex, and drinks were provided by McDonald’s Woodbine.
“Clients really enjoyed the day,” SSI case manager Lisa Keith said. “They appreciated the interaction with each other, making friendships with people from other cultural backgrounds. And it allowed case managers to engage in conversations and with clients – about their journeys, their families – and also laugh together.”
“We are now in the planning stages of a beach fishing trip and a day with the North Wollongong Surf Life Savers,” she added.
December 4, 2014
This is because they are less likely than Australians to have had swimming lessons.
To assist in the reversal of these statistics, Settlement Services International (SSI) has worked together with Royal Life Saving Society Australia (RLSS) to translate the Society’s water safety factsheets into the languages of migrant communities.
The RLSS ‘Water Smart’ factsheets can now be viewed and downloaded in the primary languages of SSI’s refugee and asylum seeker clients – Arabic, Dari, Farsi and Tamil – as well as English, from our publications page.
SSI hopes that these factsheets will help reduce the risk of drowning by emphasising that being around water, even small bodies of water in baths and buckets, can be dangerous. This is especially the case for children in Australia aged one to three, for whom drowning is the leading cause of injury-related death, according to the WHO report.
*WHO’s first Global report on drowning: preventing a leading killer
† Source: 2011 figures, cited in WHO Mortality Database as of 30 April 2014.
December 3, 2014
“While being at SSI, I’ve learned that while youth face many great challenges, they also create positive outcomes out of those challenges. We have three great stories tonight from young people about how they work through those issues and how they understand them from their perspective.”
The opening speaker was Asif, an asylum seeker from Afghanistan, who talked about the struggle he and others like him went through trying to find a safe place to live. Asif also spoke about the skills and experience of people seeking asylum and how he thought asylum seekers could contribute to Australian society.
Sarah Yahya, 19, came to Australia with her mother and sister in 2007 as a refugee from Iraq. She spoke about the personal difficulties she battled to settle in Australia. Sarah told of the crisis of self she experienced after learning why her family had to flee Iraq. She talked about the bullying by fellow students and the confusion and anxiety of starting school in a country where the language was foreign, and of the depression she dealt with.
Bashir Yousufi, who finished his HSC that week, explained how he paid a man he had never met before about AU$2 to lead him from Afghanistan to the Pakistan border when he was 13 years old. From Pakistan, he journeyed to Australia with a group of young men and teenagers, he said, despite never having heard of the country before.
The speakers then joined a panel with SSI Case Manager Marcela Hart and Youth Projects Coordinator, Multicultural Youth NSW, Ryan Buesnel, and took questions from the audience.
Ignite Small Business Start-Ups was the SSI program shortlisted by the Macquarie Group Foundation for addressing an unmet community need and demonstrating SSI’s lateral thinking about community issues.
Other finalists included The Smith Family, The Centre for Eye Research Australia, and the Australian Centre for Social Innovation.
The foundation was awarded $100,000 to fund further development of its Fogarty EDvance initiative, which provides principals in low socio-economic status schools with leadership and management skills.
Chair of the Macquarie Group Foundation Shemara Wikramanayake, said the high calibre of submissions received this year made judging difficult. “I congratulate all our outstanding finalists for their commitment to continuing to develop innovative programs that address social needs and long-term community problems.”
SSI congratulates the Fogarty Foundation, and is proud to have been a finalist for this award.
Indian and Sri Lankan communities in NSW are said to have one of the lowest rates of breast cancer screening in the state, which can increase chances of survival through early detection. SAHELI supports the initiative by facilitating a mobile breast screening clinic that is free to women 40 years and older.
SAHELI operates under the Social Entrepreneurial Ventures of Australian South Asians organisation, known as SEVA International. The group of volunteers works closely with SSI, promoting health information, sponsoring SSI’s Community Kitchen and supporting social and cultural events, including Diwali celebrations, for SSI’s clients of South Asian heritage.
Bashir fled Afghanistan, where war was still raging, after his parents died. He lived for eight months in Pakistan with an aunt but conditions there, where Hazaras also risk murder or torture by other groups, compelled him to leave.
So Bashir travelled with no family or adult guardian, but was accompanied by young friends of a similar age who he had met in Pakistan. Bashir speaks of his young friends like they have known one another for a lifetime.
“I’m still in contact with some of them and we talk always; we talk of the struggle,” he said.
From Indonesia, Bashir and his friends took the perilous boat trip to Christmas Island where they arrived safely to claim refugee protection from Australia in 2010. The new arrivals were then kept in detention on the island for about three months.
Bashir spoke no English and had little understanding of the country he was asking to accept him as a refugee. He had only heard that it was safe, he said.
“I had come from a third world country to a first world country,” the now 17-year-old said. “As a young man, a young boy, at age 13, coming to Australia it was very difficult. I didn’t even know where Australia was. I had not heard of Australia before coming here.”
Bashir was sent from Christmas Island to a detention centre in Melbourne, where he spent another three months before being granted a permanent protection visa. Free to live in Australia, Bashir faced new barriers to integrate.
“The most difficult thing was the barrier of English, because every single minute of your life you need it,” Bashir, who is now fluent in English, said. “When I first came here, in detention, I could not even ask the guard for a bottle of water. I learnt about 15 words a day. And when I was released from detention, I told my guardian ‘you must enroll me in school straight away’. I had no schooling in Afghanistan.”
Bashir now lives with two friends in Merrylands, western Sydney, and is vice-captain at Holroyd High School, where he will finish his HSC exams this month.
“It is a great honour,” he said, “that you can come all the way from Afghanistan and with no schooling or English and today be able to finish the HSC, and to be able to share my story with people. It’s absolutely incredible, where I have come from; I think I have done very well.
“There are a lot of positives, but also many negatives. My father being killed, my mother dying from cancer, but I try to focus on the positives.”
Bashir has applied to study at the University of Western Sydney and University of Technology Sydney. He hopes to one day be an accountant.
On November 11, Bashir will tell his story in detail at SSI’s Speakers’ Series, titled The strength of youth: young people and their refugee experiences. He will be joined by two other speakers with similar, but unique, backgrounds before the three speakers join a panel discussion.
Event Details:
Date: Tuesday November 11, 2014
Time: 6-7.30pm
Location: SSI Auditorium, Level 2, 158 Liverpool Road, Ashfield
Admission by donation. RSVP: refugeeyouth.eventbrite.com.au
Media enquiries:
SSI Online Communications Coordinator, Callan Lawrence, 0478 156 491 or 02 8799 6746
Head of Executive Communications and Media, Rekha Sanghi 0422 304 578
Thursday, October 30, 2014
There are more than 15,000 young people, aged 12 to 24, from refugee backgrounds currently living in NSW. SSI CEO Violet Roumeliotis said these young people came to Australia with profound stories that should be shared.
“Their experiences are diverse and in some instances have created specific needs, such as mental and physical health problems, that require support from the community,” Ms Roumeliotis said. “But those refugee experiences have also empowered young people to be leaders, and strengthened the resolve of individuals to take opportunities and reach their potential.”
This SSI Speakers Series event will hear from three exceptional young people about their experiences of coming to Australia from Afghanistan and Iraq, and will discuss what is needed to support young people like them to reach their potential.
Sarah Yahya, 19, is one of the three youth speakers at the event. Since coming to Australia from Iraq, via Jordan, in 2007, Sarah has been awarded a High Order of Australia for Community Service, a Defence Force of Australia Leadership Award and Rotary Youth Leadership Award. Sarah has been chosen as an Australian representative at the 2015 Harvard National Model United Nations, and was sponsored by the University of Technology Sydney — where she is completing a combined journalism and international studies degree — to attend. Sarah volunteers at youth mental health service HeadSpace, as well as several other community organisations. She is also hearing impaired.
Sarah fled Iraq with her mother and sister, to be joined by their father later, because people of their Mandaean religion were being attacked and persecuted. “My sister and I didn’t know at first why we were fleeing,” she explained, “for a long time we thought it was because of the war. We didn’t know that our religion was persecuted. This was good in a way, it protected us, but it made problems in future. When we came to Australia and it was explained about our religion, it made us think we didn’t know who we were or what our identity was.
“Growing up was very complicated. I think people settling in Australia from another country may not realise the challenges – the mental health challenges. That’s why I got involved in my local HeadSpace, because there are people with depression in the community and I wanted to prevent people going through what I went through.”
Asif Haideri will also present at the Speakers’ Series. Asif is a Hazara refugee from Afghanistan who arrived in Australia in November 2012. In the two years he has lived in Sydney, Asif has developed as a talented speaker known for sharing his story at public events. He is also a Refugee Art Project participant.
Bashir Yousufi, 17, arrived in Australia in 2010 at age 13. In 2012, Bashir represented Australia in Geneva at the Discussion for the Committee on the Rights of the Child, where he shared his experiences as a child in immigration detention. He is Vice-Captain of Holroyd High School, where he is currently completing his HSC, and is on the Student Representative Council. He is the winner of Western Sydney Refugee Youth Awards 2014 – Community Leadership Award.
Following these three opening presentations, the youth presenters will join a panel discussion with SSI Youth Projects Coordinator for Multicultural Youth NSW, Ryan Buesnel and SSI Case Manager Marcela Hart. The discussion, with audience questions, will be facilitated by broadcaster Emma Couch.
Event Details: The strength of youth: young people and their refugee experiences
Date: Tuesday November 11, 2014
Time: 6:00-7:30pm
Location: SSI Auditorium, Level 2, 158 Liverpool Road, Ashfield
Admission by donation. RSVP: refugeeyouth.eventbrite.com.au
………………………………………………END……………………………………………………
Media enquiries:
SSI Online Communications Coordinator, Callan Lawrence, 0478 156 491 or 02 8799 6746
Head of Executive Communications and Media, Rekha Sanghi 0422 304 578
“They have really been enjoying themselves and I’m glad they’ve had the opportunity to learn something new and something they might otherwise have never been able to try,” Mr Podesta said
Mr Podesta had been discussing the idea of introducing tennis to refugees with one of his tennis coaches, Mr Daniel Hopkins.
Mr Hopkins is a case manager with Settlement Services International, a not-for-profit organisation that, among other services, is the largest provider of humanitarian settlement support to refugees in NSW.
Mr Hopkins grew up playing tennis and wanted to share his love of the sport with some of his younger clients.
“It was very fortuitous that just as Tony and I were throwing around this idea, Tennis Australia was offering a grant for a multicultural pilot program,” Mr Hopkins said.
Together they submitted a proposal and The Tony Podesta School of Tennis was chosen to run a pilot program that Tennis NSW has observed carefully for a possible national roll out.
“We (Tennis NSW) are keen to increase community engagement and create a nurturing environment in which people from multicultural backgrounds can learn to play tennis,” said Tennis NSW Program Manager Michelle Howe.
“I watched a class last week and the kids couldn’t get enough. You could see that they were really enjoying themselves, and they didn’t want to give up the court when it was the parents’ turn”, Ms Howe said.
Mr Podesta said that tennis is a sport you can play at any level and any time.
“You can play daily at a competitive level, or you can play once a week when you’re retired. It’s social and healthy, and as I said, it stays with you for life,” he said. “I hope these new comers will choose to continue with tennis when this program ends.”
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Media enquiries:
SSI Online Communications Coordinator, Callan Lawrence, 0478 156 491 or 02 8799 6746
Head of Executive Communications and Media, Rekha Sanghi 0422 304 578
Professor Markus said his presentation would examine survey findings since 2000 and seek to establish whether attitudes were consistent or had changed over time. It will also discuss differences within demographics of the population, he said.
“Examination of survey data is useful to provide understanding of the extent to which attitudes are shaped by political debate and the media, as distinct from basic values of Australian people,” Professor Markus said. “Consideration of public opinion within the European Union provides scope to further understand the distinctive characteristics, if any, of Australian opinion. Are Australians, for example, more xenophobic than Europeans?”
A panel discussion featuring Professor Markus, journalist and author Chris Rau and Commander of Management and Leadership Development for the NSW Police Force Mark Wright, will follow the presentation.
Chris Rau is a print journalist with 30 years’ experience writing for national and metropolitan newspapers and magazines in Sydney and Melbourne. She also published a handbook for media newcomers and students titled Dealing with the Media (UNSW Press, 2010). She has written on asylum seeker issues since 2005. She is also the sister of Cornelia Rau, a German citizen and Australian permanent resident who was wrongfully detained in 2004 and 2005 as part of the Australian Government’s mandatory detention program.
Superintendent Wright was Local Area Commander of Blacktown Police from June 2008 to December 2013. During his time at Blacktown, Superintendent Wright was highly commended for his work with the multicultural community. In 2010 he was awarded a Humanitarian Award by the Refugee Council of Australia and NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors (STARTTS) and in 2012 was named a Paul Harris Fellow by Rotary (International) in appreciation of tangible and significant assistance given for the better understanding and friendly relations between peoples of the world. He is the founder and former chair of the COM4Unity Project. His work in Blacktown has been the feature of positive news stories on A Current Affair and the ABC’s 7.30 programs as well as in The Sydney Morning Herald and local newspapers.
Date and time: Tuesday August 26, 2014 from 6:00 to 7:30pm
Location: SSI Auditorium, Level 2, 158 Liverpool Rd, Ashfield
Attendance by media: see contacts below
Attendance by public: register at Eventbrite.com.au.
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Media enquiries:
SSI Online Communications Coordinator, Callan Lawrence, 0478 156 491 or 02 8799 6746
Head of Executive Communications and Media, Rekha Sanghi 0422 304 578
SSI Marketing and Communications Manager, Angela Calabrese 0401 284 828
SSI Coordinator Janna Sharples observed the Ramadan fasting period for the first time on Wednesday, July 16. “I wanted to have some understanding of what my staff members go through during Ramadan,” she said. It was an opportunity to learn more about Ramadan.”
After rising at 4.30am to eat breakfast, Janna said – with comical anecdote – that going without water had been the most difficult aspect of fasting. “I’ve learnt that you really can’t live without water,” she said, “no food has been fine but water is a struggle. I actually watered the office plants hoping that it would somehow quench my own thirst.”
But at 5.25pm, Janna could pour herself a drop. She was not alone as people queued out the door at Auburn Centre for Community to break their fast with a feast that started with dates and included pizza, pasta and vegetables.
The food was donated by the Mission of Hope organisation, whose volunteers also served and gave food packages and blankets to CSP clients. Mission of Hope Executive and Project Coordinator Feroz Sattar said the organisation had collected some 30,000 donations and packaged about 1,000 food hampers during Ramadan. Its volunteers had also served 120 hot meals to families “doing it tough”, he said.
After enjoying a meal and helping to clean and organise, Jawad commented on the day’s challenges. “Yes, it is difficult but it is very good to be a good man,” he said. It is not only for religious people but for all people.”