Finding freedom in Bendigo
The 2023 Refugee Week theme of Finding Freedom is particularly poignant at Bendigo Community Health Services.
The BCHS Refugee and Cultural Diversity and Settlement Services teams work with former refugees or new arrivals to Bendigo to ensure they have the skills, resources and support to find a new chapter of life here, free from war, violence, hunger and persecution.
This picture represents most members of those teams, who took five minutes from their very busy schedule this week to gather for a group photograph.
Members of these teams are some of the first people new arrivals meet when they step off the plane in Melbourne, fresh from refugee camps or war zones around the world. This caring, compassionate meeting represents the start of a remarkable settlement journey in Bendigo.
Program aims to keep former refugees safe in fire, heat and flood
A groundbreaking program to prepare former refugees for extreme central Victorian weather conditions could become a model for other regions, said Bendigo Community Health Services.
Facilitated by BCHS and agency partners, the Emergency Preparedness Program delivered information to approximately 6000 new arrivals in Bendigo over the past six months, in person and online. “And those numbers are just the beginning,” said Refugee Project Worker Nido, as some program participants are sharing their new-found knowledge with their families and communities.
Now in its fourth year, the program delivers critical information to new arrivals on how to keep safe in fire, heat, storm and flood emergencies.
Nido said with more and more Karen, Dari and Dinka-speaking people arriving in Bendigo, arming them with knowledge on emergency situations and services was an important part of helping them settle into life here.
“They come with very little knowledge about Australian bush and grassfires, floods and heat, which makes them very vulnerable to being affected,” he said.
BCHS supports a state-wide sexual and reproductive health demand analysis
Bendigo Community Health Services is in full support of a proposed comprehensive sexual and reproductive health service demand and gap analysis for the whole of Victoria following the release of the Victorian Auditor-General’s report to State Parliament into Supporting Sexual and Reproductive Health.
Four years after dedicated sexual and reproductive health hubs were first funded in Victoria, the report has called for more knowledge on the influence those hubs were having on access to services.
BCHS is one of 11 State Government-funded sexual and reproductive health hubs. Its records show since becoming a hub in 2019, its sexual and reproductive health services have more than doubled. Services included IUD insertions, medical abortions, abortion-related counselling and STI treatments.
Harnessing the healing power of art
Come Wednesdays and Fridays in Kangaroo Flat, the Bendigo Community Health Services site doubles as an art studio, with raffia and clay, wool and paper, pencils and paints at the ready. But there’s a serious side to all this fun and creativity, and a waiting list of people wishing to be involved in the service’s first dedicated art therapy sessions.
The initiative is thanks to La Trobe Master of Art Therapy students Elise Lidgett and Genevieve Thornton, who are on an extended placement at BCHS until November, facilitating a host of sessions for all ages, focusing on themes such as emotional regulation and anxiety.
Genevieve said art therapy was a means of using creativity to express trauma and emotions, as opposed to traditional talking therapies.
“So many people find it difficult to verbalise trauma, and art therapy is a way to start doing that,” she said. “It’s a privilege to be here, to be listening to people’s stories, and providing a space for them to take part.”
More Love Bites facilitators needed in Bendigo
Bendigo Community Health Services is seeking professionals who work with young people aged 15 and over to join with them in promoting healthy relationships and saying no to violence.
BCHS is hosting free training for people to facilitate the evidence-based Love Bites Respectful Relationships Program.
The National Association for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect program is based on best practice standards for education as recommended by the Australian Domestic and Family Violence Clearinghouse and other leading academics in the area of violence against women.
Right now, BCHS Health Promotion officer Siobhan Sullivan is Bendigo’s only Love Bites facilitator. She said after 12 months of delivering the program in local schools, more people were needed to spread its message.
“The response to the sessions that have already been run in Bendigo has been really positive and there’s been an increase in young people’s knowledge around what makes a healthy relationship, and how to identify red flags in unhealthy relationships,” she said.
New Smalltalk playgroup seeks donations of books and toys
Bendigo Community Health Services is seeking resources for its first Smalltalk supported playgroup for local families.
A national program developed by the Parenting Research Centre, Smalltalk promotes evidence-based strategies parents can use to enhance learning at home for children from birth to school age.
The Smalltalk elements will form the basis of playgroups in Bendigo, Long Gully, Eaglehawk, Kangaroo Flat and Heathcote.
Early childhood educator Felicity Vaillard has joined BCHS to run the playgroups and work with local families.
With a special interest and expertise in early childhood literacy and play therapy, Felicity said she was looking forward to fostering safe, fun and creative groups to nurture children, their parents and carers.
BCHS welcomes essential vaping reforms
Bendigo Community Health Services has welcomed government reforms to tighten regulations on highly dangerous and additive nicotine vaping products.
BCHS has led the local conversation about the dangers of vaping, having witnessed first-hand the impact on young people in particular.
Senior Health Promotion Officer Siobhan Sullivan said following community concern from schools and parents on the increased use of e-cigarettes among young people, last year BCHS launched the ‘there’s no safe vape’ campaign.
“We see these reforms as significant step that will deliver real change, particularly for young people,” Siobhan said.
“We’ve been delivering education, online and in person, to schools, parents and young people with the message that there is no safe way to vape.
“Still, we have seen a worrying and steady rise in vaping in our region, especially among teenagers.
“Although it is illegal for people under the age of 18 to purchase vapes in Australia, some retail and online stores are readily selling them.
“Earlier this year we submitted our feedback to the government’s proposed reforms to the regulation of nicotine vaping products, and we’re encouraged that many of our ideas are reflected in today’s announcement.”
New Karen residents to explore the Loddon Valley
Bendigo Community Health Services is helping showcase the Loddon Valley to Karen refugees, via a unique day trip that has potential to influence the new arrivals and the places they visit.
The excursion is the idea of Loddon Mallee Community Leadership Program graduate Jan Pagliaro, who was inspired by the remarkable impact of new arrivals on other Victorian rural towns.
“I took the idea from what’s happened in Nhill and Pyramid Hill,” Jan said. “Those towns were being decimated by an aging population and no new families coming in, so they got together as a community and invited in new arrivals.
“There are now Filipino people living in Pyramid Hill and Karen people in Nhill. They’ve saved the local football club, the businesses and schools. So I thought, why can’t we do that closer to home?”
In Nhill, Karen New Year is now a whole-of-town event. Some once-empty heritage shop fronts are home to Karen-owned businesses. Karen people are employed at 12 separate employers. And many families have bought their own houses in the town.
Jan received funding for the excursion from Eastweb, which supports projects benefiting refugee communities in Victoria. Then she secured assistance from BCHS to make the day happen. BCHS manages the region’s humanitarian settlement program in partnership with AMES Australia.
BCHS teams up to address energy poverty
Bendigo Community Health Services is helping cut the power bills of low-income homeowners in the region.
BCHS has partnered with the Bendigo Sustainability Group on a project to put solar panels on the homes of those who otherwise couldn’t afford to switch to green energy.
The BSG’s GIVING POWER project aims to provide up to 30 households in the Bendigo and Loddon Mallee region with a 3kw solar system, for free.
BCHS staff are working to identify homeowners who qualify for the program, from sole parents, to older people, to people with a refugee background, and many others.
“Energy poverty is real,” said Settlement Services Senior Leader Martine Street.
“We are speaking with people who want solar, but who could never contemplate installing panels because they simply couldn’t afford the upfront costs.
BCHS recognises Karen allies this ANZAC Day
Bendigo Community Health Services will acknowledge Karen people’s WWII contribution this ANZAC Day, when it lays a wreath for the very first time.
BCHS has helped thousands of Karen refugees settle in Bendigo since the first families arrived in 2007. They bring with them a unique culture, a lived experience of trauma and displacement, and hopes for a safe and peaceful future. They also bring a little-known shared history with Australia, as allies to the British forces.
The Karen is an oppressed ethnic group from Burma. During WWII, when Japanese forces invaded the then British-colonised nation, the Burmese army sided with the Japanese, while the Karen fought alongside the British as allies.
One of those soldiers was Chit Khin, the grandfather of BCHS refugee project worker Nido.
Chit Khin served as a captain in the Second Burma Rifles, alongside British troops, recruiting and training other Karen in guerrilla warfare. He was awarded a host of medals for his service, now buried in the earth on the Thai side of the Burma (Myanmar) border.
