Ballarat migrants get new life skills

By Emma Brown
Updated November 2 2012 - 3:54pm, first published February 20 2011 - 1:42pm
OFFERING HELP: Non-English Speaking Background Links chairperson Sulaika Dhanapala with new Ballarat resident Sheetal Mehta. Picture: Adam Trafford
OFFERING HELP: Non-English Speaking Background Links chairperson Sulaika Dhanapala with new Ballarat resident Sheetal Mehta. Picture: Adam Trafford

FREEDOM as a Defence is a local project designed to equip Ballarat’s newest residents with life skills. Run by Ballarat migrant support group – Non-English Speaking Background Links – the new program aims to to empower ordinary people and strengthen Ballarat’s multicultural community, group founder and chairperson, Sulaika Dhanapala, said. “The program will provide the support for migrants and those from refugee backgrounds to get the freedom to achieve what they want,” Ms Dhanapala said.She said the word “freedom” referred to the relationships and associations that make up people’s lives in society – in families, neighbourhoods and voluntary associations.The project will address issues such as breaking free of abusive relationships, finding employment and education, finding networks to connect people as friends and counsellors, and homelessness and hunger.“We invite people from all walks of life to become involved in this project, strengthening our community and renewing our social traditions of working together, looking out for neighbours and strangers, offering a hand up rather than a hand out for those who need it,” Ms Dhanapala said.NESB Links moved into its new offices in Mair Street a month ago and will continue its valuable work, which started in 1997.NESB Links’s main aim is to break the isolation for people of non-English-speaking backgrounds, provide support, help them settle in their new country and to link them with mainstream culture and organisations.

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