With entertainment by Sako Dermenjian and the Persian Lady Dance Group, SCARF celebrated World Refugee Day in style at the Town Hall last month. The atmosphere was electric!
The morning tea celebration, held from 10am on Friday, 24 June at Wollongong Town Hall, featured catering by local refugee-run businesses and speakers from refugee backgrounds. SCARF hosted the celebration in collaboration with MCCI, Red Cross and Wollongong City Council.
UNHCR estimates that the number of refugees worldwide exceeds 27 million and the theme for Refugee Week this year was “healing”.
“Over the last two years, the increased sense of trauma and pressure placed on the community, due to COVID, the war in Afghanistan and the war in Ukraine make Refugee Week and the celebration at the Town Hall so much more important,” said SCARF manager Drew Sewell.
“These events are a way for community members with a shared experience to come together and continue the process of healing by sharing food, stories, song and dance.
"During Refugee Week, we recognise the resilience, strength and positive contribution that people from refugee backgrounds bring to our community and our country.”
For more than 15 years, SCARF has been supporting refugee entrants settling in Wollongong to navigate the practical and personal challenges of starting a new life.
SCARF connects local volunteers with refugee families to provide friendship-based, practical and empowering support to more than 2000 men, women and children starting a new life in
the Illawarra.
SCARF facilitates a range of targeted programs designed to help refugee entrants reach their settlement goals, including friendship programs, education and employment programs and mental health and youth leadership programs.
