From the Lord Mayor's Office
Refugee Challenge an eye-opener for all
Earlier this week, I had the immense pleasure of attending the annual Illawarra Refugee Challenge at Figtree High School.
Wollongong’s diverse community is a great source of pride. Our city is home to people of many different backgrounds and cultures, including many residents who’ve made Wollongong home since arriving in Australia as refugees.
In fact, over the past two decades, Wollongong has become home to more than 3600 refugees looking to escape the horrors of war and conflict in their country of birth and to build a better life within our community.
Council has a long history of working with partner agencies to help people settle in Wollongong, collaborating with the Multicultural Communities Council Illawarra (MCCI), Illawarra Multicultural Services (IMS), and Southern Youth and Family Services (SYFS) over many years.
These organisations provide valuable support for people accessing education and work opportunities, as well essential health services and language and communication assistance, all things a lot of us may take for granted.
A key initiative in that time has been our collaboration with MCCI in putting on the annual Illawarra Refugee Challenge in various local schools. Held each year since 2015, the program aims to educate young people about the refugee experience.
One of the great aspects of the Challenge is that senior students deliver the program to their peers in younger year groups along with MCCI volunteers who share their lived experience of the refugee journey.
Getting to Figtree High and seeing older students imparting their newfound knowledge with such passion and detail was great to see, as was the generosity of volunteers in sharing their compelling stories.
It is a real eye-opener to learn in detail about the conditions people face in refugee camps, and the difficulties sourcing what most of us consider basic things like shelter, food and water supply, toilets, and medical facilities.
These realities really hit home when you consider the tumultuous times many are currently experiencing around the world, and it is certainly a reminder of how lucky we are to call Wollongong and Australia home.
