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An ARA Youth Ambassador's Royal Meeting
On the 11th of April I received a letter from Government House which contained an invitation to attend the State Reception for young South Australian community leaders in the presence of their Royal Highness The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, at Elizabeth on the 23rd of April.
To be able to get this invite I had been nominated by the Australian Refugee Association, which I did not know about so... surprise! And what a surprise it was. The letter had arrived on the same day they needed the reply confirmation of attendance and I will forever be thankful to Mum for giving Dad the push to go fax the reply at the Post Office (they didn't understand the letter at first as they are learning English and I was at school). Thankfully Dad was in time by an hour. After a week of stressing about what to wear (thank God for my fashionista best friend) the official invitation arrived and I had found the perfect outfit.
On the day I was so nervous (it’s not every day you get to meet the Royals) and super organised Dad thought it was a good idea to go early. Two hours early. Which for someone who is going to wear heels, is not a good idea. By the time it was 11:30am, I had met with another Youth Ambassador, Murtaza. Murtaza and I had been escorted by a lovely lady to the back door of the facility where we had to wait for doors to be open and when they finally did, we had to show our little cards (Entrée Card) and IDs as well as unfortunately put our electronic devices in a cloak room. So no selfies with the Royals for us.
Through another set of security (body check with electronic wand thingies) we all settled into a room (I had thought that since it was a reception there would be chairs but nope) where we mingled, had drinks and snacks.
After an hour or so, everyone was in groups of where they had come from (who nominated them) and finally Prince William and Princess Catherine arrived. The Duke took one side of the room and The Duchess another so got to our group first. All I could think about as she walked to our group was how much my feet were killing me. But as she got closer and we were introduced and had shaken her hand (which was like... I can't even explain it), all the nerves were gone and it’s amazing how calm and collected everyone was because she was just the loveliest person and she is even prettier in person! She asked me how long I had been living in Adelaide and if I liked it.
Although I didn't get a picture with her or meet the Duke, I was just so honoured to even have been in her presence and I just want to say a big huge thank you to Renee Singh and the whole ARA team of thinking of me as such a worthy person for such nomination. I was and am so proud to have represented ARA.
- Rachel Nyiramugisha
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UPCOMING EVENTS:
May 30th - Sept 27th Faces of the Refugee Story Art Exhibition
June 15th - 21st Refugee Week
June 17th Restoring Hope - A Refugee Week Conference
June 20th ARA Oration
September 21st Amble for ARA |
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During the weeks leading up to Harmony Day, March 21st, ARA staff were involved in and connected with 16 different Harmony events throughout Adelaide.
ARA was invited to come along to these events to talk about our services, share our insights and stories, run activities and facilitate information stalls giving new people the opportunity to receive our support or start volunteering with us.
To celebrate Harmony Day we started with a staff lunch on the Monday and continued by working alongside, Trinity College, Lefevre High School, Henley Beach community house and surrounding primary schools, Cardijn College, Onkaparinga Council, Lockley’s Primary School, City of Salisbury, Kilburn Community Centre, Salisbury Library, Salisbury High School, The Middle Eastern Nouwruz Festival, Baptist Care and Largs Bay School.
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The Australian Refugee Association is committed to fostering an inclusive and harmonious Australia. Our organisation strives to welcome the newest members of our community, create awareness of refugee issues and build social cohesion.
For this reason, ARA has made a submission to the Attorney General outlining its opposition to any move that will weaken protections against racial discrimination.
ARA believes that racism remains an enormous challenge for Australia to confront, with devastating psychological and physical impacts on those who have to endure this behaviour.
The current provisions of the Racial Discrimination Act successfully balance the right to free speech with the need to protect against racial abuse and vilification. The Act also sends a strong symbolic message that there is no place for racism in Australian society.
The new amendments risk undermining the work of organisations such as ARA, as they deem the right to bigoted speech as more important than the right to be free from hate speech. By narrowing what constitutes harmful behaviour and introducing broad exemptions, the government runs the risk of giving a green light for public commentators to engage in speech that demeans, demonizes and dehumanises individuals and communities on the basis of race.
We hope that the government will listen to the enormous response from the community, which overwhelmingly opposes the proposed changes. ARA’s full submission can be viewed at www.australianrefugee.org
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All of our ARA volunteers dedicate time and service to ARA to ensure that programs are run successfully. Their skill is invaluable. Much of what ARA does would not be achieved without this commitment.
ARA is continually looking at supporting our volunteers and recognising their work. This is done through various training and update sessions run throughout the year, along with occasional activities and functions such as the Volunteer Christmas Thank You Party, Homework Club and Social Support gatherings.
It is also important to recognise individual volunteers, in particular as in this case, those who have been volunteering with ARA for 10 or more years. What a wonderful commitment that is and, it is a great pleasure to recognise their support and length of service.
These people are:
Inga Tolley; Beverley Burnell; Maureen Arnott; Sandra Lachlan; Jillian Heyland
The programs they are involved with have greatly benefitted from their dedication and expertise. The clients they have helped and the staff they have supported would not have realised the objectives they set out to achieve.
Those who work outside of ARA in their own time are valued and it is such that ARA staff could not run the programs – in this case – the Social Support Program without their support. We may not see but we do recognise the hours of service you put in.
The few who volunteer in-house as Inga does on the Help Desk, her commitment is obvious warmly treasured. Inga displays a sensitive manner to our clients that is impressive and appreciated as a representative of ARA.
To these wonderful long term volunteers, congratulations on your years of commitment and service, and to you and all our volunteers a big heartfelt Thank You.
(If I have missed someone who is still with us and has been with us for 10 or more years, please advise me ASAP mario.monteleone@ausref.net or 8354 2951. It is purely unintentional and entirely my fault!)
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Celebrate Refugee Week 2014 with the Australian Refugee Association featuring George Newhouse, who will explore the topic “Will Manus be Australia’s Sabra and Shatila?”.
Friday 20th June 2014
7pm for a 7:30pm start
Elder Hall
The University of Adelaide
North Terrace, Adelaide SA
Admission is Free
Seats are Limited. Bookings Essential.
To book,
please email
mario.monteleone@ausref.net
View the flyer on our website here
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Our local ‘artist in residence’ Kirsten Treloar has been incredibly busy creating and framing 14 A4 size pencil portraits to celebrate the life and stories of ARA’s clients, volunteers and staff.
View the flyer here
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Be part of Adelaide’s largest fun run at the Sunday Mail City-Bay Fun Run on Sunday 21st September 2014.
This is your chance to get active with ‘Amble for ARA’ and help raise funds to support tomorrow’s Australians today.
You can either run or take a leisurely walk over 12km, 6km or 3km and finish up at Glenelg.
To register,
contact Carly Squire via carly.squire@ausref.net or 8161 3312
View the flyer here
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ARA Migration and Client Services teams recently worked in partnership to provide a workshop for members of the Burmese community in order to assist them to sponsor their families and friends under the Special Humanitarian Program (visa sub-class 202).
This workshop was held on the 9th of April at ARA Salisbury office. The potential sponsors from Burma had an opportunity to seek relevant information and migration advice from ARA Migration Agents.
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At this time of the year, in preparation for cooler winter days, we are seeking your support to assist our more vulnerable clients. To help out please visit our donation page here.
We are also collecting new and second hand blankets for our clients. To donate a blanket please contact us on 8354 2951 |
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ARA receives donations from the public and the Circles of Friends as well as a financial support from Marion and Mitcham councils in order to assist our clients from refugee background to pay for school related expenses. ARA is able to provide small scholarship to help students both children and adults to pay towards fees, uniform, excursion costs and text books.
For more information on ARA Refugee Scholarship program contact ARA Underdale office on 08 8354 2951.
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Peter spent his time as a volunteer with ARA making a significant contribution to the Rejuvenate Op Shop. He ran our bookshop with passion and flair, spending his Tuesday mornings organising the categories and procuring the stock so that the bookshop became a must see for many of our customers.
Until his health and well being began to deteriorate he enjoyed working with us and was already ready to share a joke, a Peter and Dud sketch line.
All of us here at ARA have very fond memories of Peter. He was a real character and always up for a laugh. He shared photos of his family with us on his beloved ipad! He was extremely proud of them all. Peter will be sadly missed and we will place a memorial plaque in the ARA Courtyard. |
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