A life-saving program preparing migrant and refugee communities for the dangers of fires, floods and heat waves has been recognised in the 2024 Victorian Multicultural Awards for Excellence.
Bendigo Community Health Services has been delivering its Emergency Preparedness Program since 2020, alongside partners the City of Greater Bendigo, CFA and VICSES.
“Our partners kindly nominated us for the awards,” said Refugee and Cultural Diversity Senior Leader Kaye Graves.
The team received a Highly Commended award by The Governor of Victoria, Her Excellency Professor the Honourable Margaret Gardner, at a ceremony at Government House last week.
“The focus of our program is on building the capacity of former refugee and migrant communities to understand, prepare for and manage extreme weather events,” Kaye said.
“People who are new to our country are really worried about fire, heat and flood events. There are real fears. They need a tailored, targeted approach to safely living in Bendigo, in central Victoria.”
In the past four years of the program:
- 4,332 people of refugee background have attended a community education session on how to prepare for, or respond to fire, flood and heat.
- Printed resources have been produced in the Karen, Dinka and Dari languages and in simple English for all communities, and distributed more than 8000 times.
- 21 videos in the Karen, Dinka or Dari language have been produced and distributed via the BCHS website and Facebook page, and have been viewed more than 18,000 times.
- 64 Community Champions have been trained to educate their friends, family and communities, and have been acknowledged and rewarded for their work.
- Almost 100 emergency services staff have attended Understanding the Refugee Journey education sessions.
“This is an amazing program,” Kaye said.
“It needs to be embedded in settlement programs throughout the state, and we’ve now got it to a point where we know it’s culturally safe, and it works.
“A real highlight of the program is that it’s driven and delivered by our bilingual staff of lived experiences.
“We are thrilled to have been recognised for the work in this year’s Victorian Multicultural Awards for Excellence.
“We thank our partners for continuing to work with us to produce this important work for our community.”
Pictured above are the CFA’s Paul Tangey and BCHS’ Zahir, Nido, and Shee Lee at the ceremony last week with the Governor of Victoria.
Learn more about the work of our Refugee and Cultural Diversity team.
