• Introduction

• Women's health programs
  • Fairfield Centre groups
  • Cabramatta Centre groups

• Organisations interactions/networking

• Legal service

• Activities to meet demands

• IWHS and future

• Acknowledgments

Introduction

I have had the pleasure of sharing yet another year of hard work with a dedicated team of women at Immigrant Women’s Health Service. In the past year we have had our share of succuss and failure but in the end we seem to have had our mark.

My total appreciation goes for the participants, staff and management of IWHS and all the stakeholders who have contributed to the cause of women from migrant and refugee backgrounds.

The service has been able to form strong links between the state departments and the community. So, far we have enjoyed the statues of being on advisory capacity to inform decision making and policy development. We also provide valuable inputs in this process by highlighting issues of contemporary relevance to the community. The service remains committed to these issues without compromising on the performance standards.

As a specialised service, immigrant women’s health has been addressing access and equity issues for a range of migrant and refugee women. At present, the service has been targeting 15 different language groups through its programs. These are marginalised groups in the South Western Sydney having diverse and special needs in relation to health service delivery.

I would like to acknowledge the contribution made by all those migrant and refugee women who attended the service and provided us with enthusiasm and challenge to run the show. Their participation was a key motivating factor for us, and their feedback, an essential recipe for future growth

I have now been in the position of the service manager for a little less than a year. This year is a developmental year for me in the new position and along side; the service also went through the process of change.

The service is currently working with 15 different language groups. The current focus is on maintaining our activities with the established communities and initiating new groups with the emerging communities in the local area. To achieve this goal we developed ties with the local networks and organisations. My sincere appreciation goes for these organisations and individuals associated with them who gave their time and inputs towards developing fruitful and lasting relationships and helped us in the process of achieving the goals of access and equity in migrant, refugee and NESB women’s health.

In the last year we were able to expand our participation in a range of consultations, forums, and discussions on NESB health. The service is a member of several references groups ranging from mental health, NESB health, women’s health to families first and parent support programmes in the area.

The service was able to attract funding for new and innovative projects in the last financial year these projects were time bound and the emphases was on activities , which address the needs expressed by migrant women in the local area.

We effectively responded to the needs of the emerging communities in the area by initiating special support groups. New Zealand women support group is an example of the responding to the needs of an emerging community. The Samoan women’s health group caters to the needs of a special group. The health information days were successful events opening up a range of service options through providing a range of information to different communities.

Besides these activities we participated /organised regular forums and activities such as the international women’s day, day of action against violence, women’s picnic, and the international year of older persons in the area in conjunction with the other partner organisations.

One of the key areas of development this year is the enhancement and general upgrade of the building and facilities at Fairfield and Cabramatta centres to make them a better equipped for the participants and staff.

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Women’s health programs

One of the main strength of the women’s health programs is the ongoing groups which attend Fairfield and Cabramatta centres. IWHS initiated a range of activities aimed at facilitating community development and support mechanism for women accessing the services.

These activities were characterised by health promotion and eduction and initially began as one of many programs aimed at providing information for women through workshops and various other activities.

The health support groups for women are also notoriously famous for their penchant for organising feast days. Cooking demonstrations were warmly welcomed when they were introduced in some programs and food sharing features regularly in many groups. Apart from shared migrant experiences, food is a vital ingredient that binds women within the groups.

These activities were received well by women and consequently have become ongoing projects.

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Fairfield centre currently caters to the following groups:

• Arabic women’s support group
• Spanish speaking women’s group
• English classes
• English classes for the protection visa holders
• Samoan women’s support group
• New Zealand women’s support group
• Yoga group
• Serbian Women’s support group
Short term programs
• The Sudanese women’s health group
• The Farsi speaking women’s group

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Cabramatta centre currently caters for the following groups:

• Cambodian women and children group
• English classes
• Vietnamese mothers group
• Spanish speaking women’s health and exercise group
• Chinese women’s group
• Vietnamese women’s group

The past year saw the groups engage in creative endeavours that were considered by the women as enjoyable, instructive and incredibly satisfying. These activities helped them recognise their individual gift for creating works that they initially thought they were incapable of producing. The groups had sessions on:

• Flower making
• Decorating fabric painting
• Picture frame making
• Cooking and baking
• Dancing
• Make up
• Sewing

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Organizations Interactions/ Networking

Developing functional and productive networks with agencies with similar or overlapping objectives is an integral part of service provision.

Networking facilitates information exchange, sharing of expertise, supports relevant issues and allows for women issues to become part of a public forum.

IWHS is fortunate to link with the local communities and ethno specific agencies.

I would like to give a thank you to the following organisations and networks

• Khmer Community of NSW
• Serbian Welfare Association
• Fairfield Community Heath Centre
• Cabramatta Community Health Centre
• Fairfield Community Resource Centre
• SLASSA
• Breast Screening NSW
• Fairfield Council
• Fairfield Youth Accommodation Service
• Liverpool Women’s Health Service
• Bankstown Women’s Health Service
• Women’s Health NSW
• TAFE Outreach, Wetherill Park
• Vietnamese Community in Australia
• House of welcome

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Legal service

The outreach service is run by the women’s legal resource centre and commenced operation at Fairfield office since January 1996.

A female solicitor from the women’s legal resource centre attends on a fortnightly basis. The clients come from a diverse range of cultural background including vitamises, chines Spanish speaking and Assyrian. The service uses interpreters for most of the reach visits .the outreach legal service has helped a substernal number of women with their legal problems.

The majority of women who uses the service are migrant women with very limited knowledge of the English languages and also very limited knowledge of the Australian legal system. Their situations are further complicated by the fact that many of them are unemployed, support children and may have experienced war, trauma, and torture in their lives.
The clients at the service have high needs and the support service available to them is very limited.

The women seek assistance and advice in the following matters:

• Family law including divorce and children issues
• Domestic violence
• Overseas abduction
• Centre link issues
• Consumer related problems
• Victim’s compensation
• Sexual assaults
• Will and probate

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Activities to meet demands

A requested activity by women’s health NSW was to present a paper at the second conference for 2004. My presentation focused on NESB women and feminism the presentation also focused on the cultural ensitivity in service delivery. The paper was well received and indeed it was very encouraging to receive support for our past effort and open new doors for more effective partnerships.

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IWHS and the future

In future, our focus will be on consolidation of our activities and program evaluation and review. We will also be working in collaboration on migrant and refuge women’s issues with the other existing organizations the local rasa and on doing joint projects. Our key areas of service provision will remain he same and we will provide health information and referrals, enhance NESB women’s physical , social and emotional health and facility understanding and skills among the target community to bring about change .besides ,out commitment to social justice and access and equity will remain firm.

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Acknowledgments

My appreciation goes to:

• The NSW Health Department and the Area Health Service, My colleagues at IWHS and the group facilitators. Surly, I would not have been able to achieve much with out them.
• The management committee of IWHS for supporting me and providing guidance to unfathomed mysteries of service management.
• My colleague organisations within and outside the local area. Thank you all.

Looking forward to another year of achievements and partnerships.

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