Ethnic community groups in Casey Victoria got together to share their stories about their personal journeys to Australia as migrants for artist Dena Al Jamal to transform these stories and ideas into a quilt artwork. This exciting art project will feature a multicoloured haired woman on the quilt that represent mothers from different cultural backgrounds, and it will be delivered in March next year.
National Mosque Open Day
This Saturday is the National Mosque Open Day in Australia. On this day, participating mosques across the nation will open their doors to welcome the public to explore their local mosque.
Multicultural Debating team wins prestigious tournament
A multicultural team from Greenwood College, composed of students some of whom have been learning English for only three years have won the prestigious WA Schools Debating Competition in the novice division.
One of these students is Asmaa Hameed who came to Australia from Iraq three years ago. She only knew a few words in English when she arrived and began studying after she enrolled at Greenwood College’s Intensive Language Centre.
Asmaa said she started debating to build her self-confidence as well as her English skills.
“Once I started doing debating I turned from a shy person to a really confident person,” she said.
The Centre’s head teacher, Ela Amor-Robertson commented how the student’s success demonstrated their commitment and love of learning.
The team competed against 160 other schools for the prestigious title some of whom were well known for their debating prowess.
The success of the team demonstrates that with adequate support, multicultural children are able to thrive in schools. In light of this, Cultural Perspectives is proud to be attending Settlement Services International’s Mosaic Gala for 2017. The Mosaic Gala is an event to raise money to fund refugee scholarships. These refugee scholarships were created in order to minimize the financial barriers experienced by refugees as they participate in the NSW education system.
More information about the event can be found here:
https://www.mosaicgala.ssi.org.au/
Promoting health in multicultural communities
Local Doonside resident Mervat Sidra has been working to bring issues around health to multicultural Western Sydney.
Egyptian-born Mervat Sidra was inspired to help spread the word about a healthy lifestyle after joining the Get Healthy Coaching and Information Service. Losing five kilos in the first two months, she said the free telephone-based service was crucial to her health journey specifically her coach Josh. Josh is one of the countless qualified health professionals who provide free services to motivate, advise and support people in their healthy eating and physical activity targets.
Mervat said that weight loss was not her main goal but rather focusing on activity and food to help her address her stomach issues. Weight loss was seen as an added bonus.
“I just really wanted to better manage my pain and generally feel better.”
Now the 58-year-old is working during the Multicultural Health Week (September 4-10) to get other women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds to take their health seriously.
The Western Sydney Local Health District’s Centre for Population Health deputy director Christine Newman said that in the first half of 2017, only around 7% of participants in the program reported speaking a language other than English at home.
“We want to see more CALD women take that important first step to improving their health for the long-term.”
Mervat Sidra’s is serving as an example for the rest of the CALD community, particularly women to prioritise their health by getting involved in programs such as the Get Healthy Coaching and Information Service.
NSW Premier’s Fund for Social Cohesion Opens Today
Multicultural NSW today announced the opening of the Premier’s Fund for Social Cohesion application. The grants program supports community-led events and activities that bring together people from diverse cultural backgrounds to celebrate diversity. It aims to build on the strengths of our multicultural society, develop stronger social cohesion and community resilience, particularly among young people (aged 12-25), and to inspire them to stand up against the divisive forces of fear, hate and violence.
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