Oxfam Community Aid Abroad
Diamond Valley Group

C/- 34 Hakea St. Watsonia 3087      email: dvcaa@optushome.com.au     web URL: http://members.optushome.com.au/dvcaa

October 2003                      Group's Newsletter                    Page 2          Home

This Month's  Meeting
Friday October 10th
Con Karapanagiotidis
Asylum Seeker Resource Centre


Con is a lawyer and a social worker and is the motivating force behind the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre in Footscray. The ASRC mission statement says "We are committed to protecting and upholding the human rights of Asylum seekers in the community and in detention. We do this through:

  • Providing assistance in the form of essential material aid, services and support
AND
  • Working toward changing the discriminatory and unjust laws in place against asylum seekers in Australia today"

As Asylum Seekers wait hopefully to be given refugee status, some may have been granted a bridging Visa, with no access to social security, Medicare or work rights or they may have been granted a temporary protection Visa with limited rights. Thus they are left to defend for themselves and may confront homelessness, health problems, poor nutrition, depression and post traumatic stress, inability to communicate adequately, isolation, poor knowledge of legal rights, and many other issues. Con will expand on all the workings of the centre, which has already helped over 3,000 refugees.

One very practical way we can help these people is by buying Met tickets. On enquiry, the ones needed most are DAILY ZONE FULL FARE at $5-20 though others are welcome, eg 2HR Tickets and ZONE 1 AND 2 Tickets. The suggestion was, when you buy a ticket, buy two.
Let's see if we can have a nice packet of tickets to give Con on the 10th.

We will also have some boxes (empty !) that those that feel inclined, can help to fill up with none perishable items of food. Apparently, the centre buys (or receives) some essentials in bulk, eg flour, so it was suggested a few "luxury" items might be rather nice, eg. Coffee, jam, honey, tin fruit and veg, cereal, sweet biscuits etc. Definitely no meet products.

I thing this will be a dynamic night in every way. Please try and bring friends and relatives to hear this impassioned person, and help the cause of asylum seekers.

Mavume Project

Those of you who hear our wonderful speaker, Liz Mann at our last meeting, will by now have had some thoughts on whether they feel the group should become involved in financially contributing to this project. For instance:

$21,000 will provide one cart, five ploughs and 15 cows to be shared amongst 25 families. It will also finance construction of a well, a cattle drinking trough, a tick treatment corridor and an initial supply of tick treatment medicine.

$15,000 will provide construction and materials for five nurseries for fruit and nut seedlings, as well as providing seeds for vegetables, beans and cereals.

Because groups do not like to accumulate funds, prefering to send money in as it is raised, the finance department of OCAA has approved a "no minimum amount" for groups donating to the Mavume Project. Donations would be tied to this project and progress reports would be received every six months.

We can continue, as we have been, to send money to core funds. Please bring your thoughts to the next meeting.