The South Asian Communities Link Group hosts a Senior Citizens event. PREETI DAGA reports
The South Asian Communities Link Group (SACLG) hosted a Senior Citizens event recently on the theme “Settlement Challenges and Opportunities in Australia”.
The interactive workshop was held at Newbury Child and Community Centre in Craigieburn.
Attended by over 120 senior citizens, the event was supported by various multicultural senior citizen associations including Nepali Senior Citizen Club, Bhutanese Senior Citizen Associations, Indian Senior Citizen Associations, Multicultural Senior Citizen Association, Nepalese Association of Victoria, Geelong Nepali Samaj, Melbourne Telangana forum, Didi Bhaini Samaj and Craigiburn Samaj Senior Community groups.
The aim of the workshop was twofold.
The primary objective was to provide the senior members of the community an opportunity to share their experiences and concerns with community representatives, in order to establish a working relationship among associations for collaborative projects.
Additionally, the intent was to recognise the contribution of some of the active senior citizens and the organisations for their ongoing contributions in strengthening the communities.
Relevant information was presented on the cultural, social and legal rights of senior citizens in Australia.
President of SACLG, Dr Raju Adhikari highlighted the challenges and opportunities that exist for senior citizens especially for those who migrate at very later stages of their life.
“SACLG has a major role to play, and will use the recommendations from the workshop to work with senior citizens associations to take up the issues faced by the seniors,” Dr Adhikari said.
He highlighted that working together as a team will help address the issues effectively.
Harka Bahadur Gurung, President of Nepali Senior Citizens Association made a personal contribution of $50 from his pension money to this cause and commended SACLG for organising the timely event.
The cultural presentations included a dance by Tanvi Mor, songs by Madhu and an engaging instrumental act by Avinash Rain from the Art of Living.
The promo of the upcoming Indian film The Hidden Truth was also aired to raise awareness on the issue of domestic violence.
Special guests Ros Spence MP, State Member for Craigieburn, and Deputy Mayor of Hume Council Chandra Bamunusinghe JP interacted with the seniors on the occasion and learned more about SACLG (www.saclg.org).
SACLG is a non-religious, non-political, not-for-profit organisation which promotes greater understanding between South Asian cultures and the Australian way of life.
The event was well organised by the SACLG Team led by patron Deepak Vinayak JP, Dr Raju Adhikari, Satinder Chawla, Dr Sonia Singh, Niru Tripathi, Angpal Singh, Parsu Sharma-Liutal and supported by Youth Ambassadors Tanvi Mor and Preeti Daga. Mero Consultancy supported the program.
