A REFUGEE family will be warmly welcomed into the shire later this month thanks to the incredible efforts of a local community group.
The Syrian family have been in Iraq at a refugee camp for many years, and will be settled in Bass Coast Shire through a new ‘community led’ initiative.
The group behind this is the Bass Coast Refugee Sponsorship Group, who have been working hard and raising funds over the years to sponsor a family.
Committee member Sylvia Davey explained how the story began and said the group couldn’t be more excited to sponsor the family through Community Refugee Sponsorship Australia (CRSA).
The sponsorship offers a way for ordinary Australians to help refugees successfully settle and integrate into their new local communities, and supplement the government-led resettlement program.
Community refugee sponsorship has been working successfully in Canada for more than 40 years, and is now spreading around the world including Australia, with the launch of the federal Community Refugee Integration and Settlement Pilot program this year.
“The story goes back about three years and we formed a group under the community refugee sponsorship banner,” Sylvia told the Sentinel-Times.
“The pilot program that the government has put in place started this year and will run over four years.
“It is hoped it will bring a number of refugee families and place them into community sponsorship arrangements around Australia to prove how well community sponsorship can work.”
Sylvia proudly noted the family they’ve been allocated is the first to arrive in Australia out of several families, with the group now busy preparing.
“I’m coordinating communications within the group, which has to consist of at least five adults who have undertaken some training and passed police checks,” she said.
“We’ve got eight members and are based out of Wonthaggi Neighbourhood Centre and they’ve been fantastic.
“For the past two years we’ve been fundraising and promoting to bring refugee families to the shire.
“The family matched to us is a Syrian refugee family who are currently living in Iraq and have been there for some years as refugees.
“There’s a husband, wife and four children under the age of eight.”
Sylvia said they have been communicating with the family via WhatsApp, using Google Translate as the family speaks Arabic.
“They’ve said their priority for the future is to be safe and provide an education for their children, as none of them have gone to school yet as it hasn’t been available to them.
“It’s an exciting thing to be apart of, we’re arranging to pick them up at the airport and we’re finding the community is so supportive.”
Sylvia said while there will be challenges in finding them permanent accommodation due to the current rental crisis, fortunately, many locals had offered their residence to assist.
“When they’re settled, they will do English classes at BCAL for the husband and wife and the children will be enrolled into school and kinder,” she said.
“We’ll offer informal language support as well, because that’s the most important thing.
Sylvia highlighted she hopes this will be the first of many families they assist.
Wonthaggi residents may have also noticed a film camera crew this week, who are documenting the initiative after being commissioned by CSRA.
Film director Sal Balharrie and cinematographer Mark Chew explained the film will be used to encourage more Australians to get onboard with the program and consider sponsoring refugees.
The community can continue to support the Bass Coast Refugee Sponsorship Group by donating gift cards at Mitchell House in Wonthaggi, which will help provide food and other essentials.
You can visit their Facebook page at facebook.com/BassCoastRSG/?ref=py_c for more information
