On Saturday 25 June, CatholicCare Victoria provided free transport, food and entry fees to Sovereign Hill for 42 Karen refugee youth.
Lulu and Salai from CatholicCare Victoria’s Settlement Engagement and Transition Support (SETS) program hosted the excursion, in collaboration with St Stephen’s Karen Anglican Church Youth Coordinator, Christina.
“It was really good to go out together and spend time strengthening relationships and making friends. Especially for new arrivals [to Australia], who don’t have many friends or relatives here, or who may be experiencing challenges – for example some don’t have parents, or some may be feeling down, and COVID-19 restrictions have further complicated issues too,” says Christina.
“So for those people, we encourage them to come and participate with us in these types of events. We may have different situations and different experiences, but in coming together we learn things. Maybe some strengths that we don’t have, other people might have, so we need to help and support each other.”
Photo: Karen refugee youth preparing to board the bus to Sovereign Hill.
Christina first met Lulu back in 2007, when she attended a CatholicCare women’s program.
“When I first came here to Australia, I attended all of the free sessions I could find. So I attended and learned things for myself, because I knew some basic English,” says Christina.
“But I started to notice that some of the Karen people didn’t have literacy and numeracy skills, and I wanted to help them. So I started volunteering in our church and in our Karen community. This is my passion.”
Participants of the Sovereign Hill excursion came from both the SETS Homework Group in Wyndham Vale and from St Stephen’s Karen Anglican Church.
“Visiting such a historical place, it was good to go there and have a look at how to pan gold and learn what it was like mining under the ground without electricity – it was good for the younger people to learn and see these things and it was lots of fun for all the families and individuals who attended,” says Christina.
“We want to thank Lulu so much for contacting us and for CatholicCare for giving us this opportunity. It’s really hard these days to get out from home after COVID – as a family we should have these activities, but this is our first time getting out from the town. It was a great opportunity and everyone enjoyed it. The families even asked me, ‘do we have any other events like this that we can go to?’ So it shows how much it meant to them.”
We would also like to say a special thank you to CatholicCare Victoria Family Counsellor Lylia, who provided cupcakes for the participants on the excursion.
Liz Gellel | Marketing Coordinator – Digital Lead