Who Is My Neighbour? Vision: every person is our neighbour Mission: (1) Directly support refugees (2) Broaden community understanding Origin began with 3 people then was through churches Now community wide Vision Mission strand 1 – directly assist and support migrants with a refugee background Mission strand 2 – find opportunities to tell the stories that the migrants have experienced – often of great hardship, and years in UNHCR camps, so as to broaden community understanding

WIMN’s achievements to date March 2018 weekend visit March 2019 weekend visit Fed Council’s 2019 Community Project of Year Back in 2017 WIMN organised for Pioneers (Christian missionary organisation) to give presentation, and from that we arranged for about 50 migrants who were learning English at Dandenong to visit Corowa First weekend was March 2018 – about 50 visitors, billeted with local families, there were lots of activities, community meals, and great local support – from Landcare, girl guides, community garden, Cann’s buslines, supermarkets, and many others “We came as friends and left as family” We repeated this in March this year, this time over 3 days Federations Council awarded us their award for Community Project of the Year on Australia Day

WIMN’s plans for future Continue hosting weekends Explore opportunities for refugee families to move to Corowa We will continue the hosting weekends – next will be on March 7,8,9 2020 But we would like to see if more can be done – providing secondary settlement opportunities Inspiration for this has come 3 ways: Encouraged by Walla Walla, Nhill etc Some approaches from Dandenong migrants and others to see if living and working at Corowa was possible Links to Sanctuary (MVSRG) – particularly MOU, and our joint grant from C/W

Essential requirements Local Government support Long term employment Good accommodation Good schooling Access to medical services Community support We are very pleased that we received the Fed Council award, and we want to thank them for use of this hall, for co-sponsoring the Forum and their involvement today, and for use of the Memorial Hall last March. All of the evidence is that long term employment is essential for successful integration of migrants with a refugee background into the community – very grateful that so many local employers are here today. Good housing is also essential – and this may be more complicated than it appears – many of the African families in particular are large, so may well be looking for 4 bedroom houses to rent. We haven’t investigated this much at this stage because availability will be constantly changing. Good schooling is both for children, but also to help the migrants to learn/improve their English (essential for many jobs, and for integration into community). We all want access to medical support at times and Corowa is fortunate that it has high quality doctors, hospital and allied health services. Community support is really important. MVSRG do this really well in Albury/Wodonga. We hope we can get some assistance from them, but we know they are 50 km away and we will need to find most of this from within the Corowa community.

What we’d like now Support From Fed Council (Refugee Welcome Zone) From Sanctuary From Employers Next step: establish a community group to advance refugee settlement We’ve suggested to Federation Council that they consider becoming a Refugee Welcome Zone. More than 160 other councils have taken this step, including regional councils such as Bendigo and Coffs harbour. It would send a very supportive message to both any new arrivals, and also to the local community. Our links with MVSRG are very important to us – we see them like a big brother (sister?) – they will be able to help us with advice, and maybe some services as well (driving and swimming lessons?) It may be that some refugee families currently living in Albury or Wodonga, who have been supported by MVSRG, would be the first ones to move to Corowa. And of course we hope that employers will see the advantages of hiring a multicultural workforce. The migrants/refugees that we have met have been very grateful to Australia for giving them a new life, and they are desperate to work. In many cases they are sending money back to their families overseas – they treat a job as a great privilege, and they work hard with very little absenteeism. At the end of the Forum we would like to set up a sub-group, loosely connected to WIMN, but with wider community representation, who will take this forward and identify and solve the issues that I have briefly outlined. Thanks

Contact Us Maris Berry: 0409188542