Opal Dental, Toongabbie, is a great friend of SSI that provides significant care to people from refugee backgrounds and people seeking asylum. Clinic manager Sinna Sathiakumar, or Sathia as he prefers, and his wife and principal dentist Dr Chelvi Sathiakumar, visited SSI offices in the lead up to Christmas to “put faces to the names” of SSI staff they had been in close contact with.

Students of Sydney Church of England Girls Grammar School (SCEGGS) Darlinghurst, and their families have dug deep and raised more than $4,000 for SSI’s refugee and asylum seeker clients, as well as food packages. SSI CEO Violet Roumeliotis said the generous donation was a boost that would benefit many people.

‘Tis the season for giving and membersof Hillsong Church have continued their generous support for SSI’s asylum seeker clients with donations of food and gifts for children and families. The church has supplied Christmas presents for about 100 children in Sydney who are seeking asylum, as well as food hampers for families.

A partnership between Legal Aid NSW and settlement services provider Settlement Services International (SSI) has been effective in providing free legal assistance to recent arrivals and migrants, especially in Sydney’s west, an independent review has found. Almost 2,200 services were provided to clients in the first year of the project and the partners today signed an undertaking to continue the successful collaboration.

Campbelltown-based SSI staff partnered with MacArthur Diversity Services Initiative (MDSI) in November, to take a group refugee and asylum seeker clients on a day trip to beautiful Fitzroy Falls in the Southern Highlands. The excursion was a chance for SSI and MDSI case managers to engage with the men outside the office environment, to give them an opportunity to meet others in similar situations, and to enhance their wellbeing through a fun and novel experience.

SSI’s Chair Kamalle Dabboussy and I had the opportunity to present at the International Metropolis Conference in Milan in November, and we left with a membership invitation and the beginnings of a bid to host the conference in Sydney. The Milan conference theme, “Migration: energy for the planet, feeding cultures,” looked at a global migration context.

Jenny Yang and Joseph Cheung are an impressive couple, sharing their knowledge and experience with other people with disability in the community. Their energy, enthusiasm and drive are inspiring, and on this International Day of People of Disability they acknowledge and celebrate the many other inspiring people they have met in the community.

Water safety for refugees The World Health Organisation (WHO) has released a report* revealing that drowning claims the lives of 372,000 people per year, making it the third leading cause of unintentional injury death worldwide. Australia’s statistics aren’t great, the latest figures† show 332 Australians drowned in one year. It is people from low- and middle-income regions, such as those that many refugees arrive from, who are most at risk of drowning.

Cultural Shift symposium report The evaluation report SSI Cultural Shift symposium on supporting migrant and refugee families through settlement is now available on the SSI website by following this link. More than 250 delegates contributed to an engaging and informative event, and came together to share and develop effective models and approaches for supporting refugee and migrant families through their settlement journeys.

SSI client Pouya and the Asbati Family performed an eclectic set of world music to an enthusiastic audience in Ashfield on November 18. The performance was presented as part of Ashfield Council’s ‘Frolic in the Forecourt’ – a series of free concerts and activities at midday on Tuesdays in the council’s forecourt, on Parramatta Road.

A group of nine asylum seekers supported by SSI have spent six weeks learning video production skills so they can tell their stories as part of an SSI arts and culture initiative. The workshops, which were run by SSI and Curious Works, culminated on November 14, when the group presented six short films at a special showcase screening in Granville.

Soccer super-coach Essa said he was proud and honoured to be acknowledged at Auburn City Council Sports Awards recently. Essa, who is from Pakistan and seeking refugee protection in Australia, was a finalist for the Senior Sportsperson Award after being invited to make a submission by council staff.

At SSI’s fourth and final Speakers’ Series for 2014, a capacity live audience heard the remarkable stories of three young people who each fled their birth countries as refugees before coming to Australia. The event, titled The strength of youth: young people and their refugee experiences, was held at SSI’s Ashfield auditorium on November 11, and was also streamed live to an audience online. People can now watch a high-definition recording of the event on SSI's YouTube channel, here.

SSI was a finalist in the 2014 Macquarie Social Innovation Awards, granted by the Macquarie Group Foundation to foster social innovation in the not-for-profit sector. The winner of the 2014 award was the WA-based Fogarty Foundation which focuses on innovative programs and initiatives that advance education, was announced on November 19.

SSI hosted a dinner for more than 50 real estate agencies and their staff on Wednesday November 19, to thank them for their support of our organisation and clients. SSI has been providing accommodation support to humanitarian entrants, refugees and people seeking asylum since 2012, and provides services to more than 10,000 clients each year.

Thanks to a generous member of the Bankstown community, a 16-year-old refugee boy with cerebral palsy has been gifted a much-needed electric bed that has meant he no longer needs to spend 18 hours a day on his mother’s lap. The boy, whose family was originally from Iraq and is now living in Warwick Farm in western Sydney, previously spent most of the day in his mother’s arms because it was not safe for him to be in a normal bed.

Small business entrepreneurs of refugee background were celebrated on Monday November 17 at the launch event of Ignite Small Business Start-ups (Ignite) in Sydney. Attended by almost 100 people, the event featured catering, photography, and film by some of the entrepreneurs supported by the Ignite initiative.

“As I walked up the stairs I saw her joyfully dancing with the three children to African music that connected them so authentically to their culture – it was beautiful.” Tari, SSI caseworker. Settlement Services International (SSI) was today recognised for the innovation and positive impact of its Multicultural Foster Care Service on children and families in out-of-home care.

I was incredibly heartened to see the thousands of people from diverse ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds who walked together on October 25, to show their support for a multicultural Australia where all people are respected.

Last month I was fortunate enough to be involved as a panellist in the Good Pitch documentary event in Sydney. I had the pleasure of pledging support to a powerful documentary about a Sudanese woman, Constance Okot, living with her six children in Wagga Wagga. This was one of the most remarkable events I have been to in my long career.