Agency News

MANY AUSTRALIANS have said that a vote for either major party at the recent Federal Election was a vote against refugees. As the people of Burma (Myanmar) go to the polls on November 7, Act for Peace’s Christmas Bowl will give church-goers a chance to reach out to Burma’s refugees during a time of political repression and unresolved armed conflicts. Mr ...

Wesley Mission Brisbane’s (WMB) newest aged-care community, Parkview, has successfully achieved registration in the Eden Alternative which is a caring philosophy of person-directed care. Parkview, in Brisbane’s northern suburb Chermside, is now the only Eden Alternative registered aged-care community in the Brisbane metropolitan area. In Australia, the Eden Alternative believes in challenging the norms in aged care and focuses on ...

LIFELINE GOLD Coast will host an awards ceremony tonight to celebrate 40 years of services on the Gold Coast. As a largely volunteer based organisation, Lifeline will also thank and acknowledge current volunteers of Lifeline Gold Coast who have contributed selflessly to the organisation. “Lifeline Gold Coast has come a long way from our humble beginnings 40 years ago in ...

CLIENTS OF Wesley Mission Brisbane’s Hadden Place Demen-tia Day Therapy and Respite Centre at Sinnamon Village, Brisbane, are taking advantage of a new humour therapy program thanks to $50,000 funding from the Department of Health and Ageing. Hadden Place Program Manager Lenore Eggins said people with dementia don’t lose their sense of humour. |“But they may forget how to instigate ...

UNITINGWORLD’S 2011 Experience opportunities are now on the UnitingWorld website. More than 100 placements are available in a range of exciting locations for participants to experience a diverse array of cultures in places such as Tonga, Papua New Guinea, India, Zimbabwe and South Korea. There are many new opportunities available for volunteers to spend anything between four weeks and three years ...

NATIONAL DIRECTOR of UnitingCare Australia Susan Helyar said today social policies announced by both the ALP and the Coalition during this election campaign amount largely to punitive, short-term measures that will encourage prejudice in many people, but will do little to address the intergenerational cycle of poverty and disadvantage experienced by some Australians. The campaign has predictably been fought on economic ...

ACT FOR Peace’s partners responding to the floods in Pakistan welcome the Australian Government’s $25 million increase to the response effort though insist the need is much greater and time is running out. Act for Peace, the international aid agency of the National Council of Churches in Australia, is asking the Australian public to support the response as a matter ...

UnitingCare Australia’s National Director, Susan Helyar, has responded to the Coalition’s Job Commitment Bonus election announcement, saying that “today’s announcement by the Coalition will do little to address long-term unemployment.” “While we are encouraged that the Coalition is prepared to move on long-term unemployment I’m afraid they have missed the mark,” Ms Helyar said. “If you were to examine this ...

AN ESTIMATED one in four Queenslanders live in some kind of poverty according to the Queensland Council of Social Services. Every day Wesley Mission Brisbane (WMB) helps over 3000 people. WMB Executive Director Geoff Batkin said their annual fundraiser Footloose Friday, this year held on Friday 20 August, was about supporting people in need. “The work WMB does helps people ...

IN RECENT months Zimbabwe has only hit Australian news headlines for the politics of cricket or conflict, but Mr Astonishment Mapurisa has arrived in this country with good news of an effective long-term partnership between UnitingWorld and a number of projects near Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare. For five years Mr Mapurisa has served as the Director of the Matthew Rusike Children’s ...