annual report - Multicultural Centre for Women's Health

‘’We end our year at MCWH with thepromise of growth and new activities.In 2011, MCWH will launch a new nationalprogram, Multicultural Women’s HealthAustralia (MWHA).dr adele murdoloexecutive directorMCWH has completed an exciting year,implementing our usual programs withimmigrant and refugee women in workplaces,community spaces and prison settings, aswell as bringing to completion five of the nineprojects currently underway, on a range ofhealth and wellbeing topics from violenceprevention to women’s leadership.A grand total of 6,032 contacts were madeduring the 450 education sessions conductedfor health education programs and projects.Of the total, 5,722 contacts were made withparticipants of group education sessions,132 were with women who participated inadvocacy and leadership workshops and85 were with participants of the professionaldevelopment seminar and training programs.A further 83 contacts were made withorganisations or individuals from aroundAustralia who made requests for multilingualhealth information.This year was memorable for so much ofthe wonderful work that was done, but twoactivities stand out in particular. There weretwo ‘graduations’ here at MCWH. The firstwas the graduation of the women whotook part in the PACE Women’s LeadershipTraining Program; on graduation day14 women showed how leadership can takemany forms, and that in the context of agreat many hardships and hurdles intheir lives, women’s leadership can oftenbe inspirational. We thank the PACE womenfor sticking with the program, contributing theirhard work, and passing on their knowledge andskills to others by, among other activities,publishing their amazing stories online.The second graduation was of a group of eightwomen who were selected to become MCWHBilingual Health Educators. This group ofwomen from Cambodian, Chinese, Indian,Karen, Sudanese and Vietnamese communitiessuccessfully completed the 12-day inductionprogram and graduated to the role of MCWHBilingual Health Educator. Congratulations toall 22 graduands, inspirational women whowill now go on to make an active contributionto MCWH, to their communities, and to theAustralian community in general.We end our year at MCWH with the promiseof growth and new activities. In 2011,MCWH will launch a new national program,Multicultural Women’s Health Australia (MWHA).Funded through the Commonwealth Departmentof Health and Ageing, MWHA will providemultilingual information, professionaldevelopment, networks development, policyadvice, and advocacy on a national level inrelation to immigrant and refugee women’ssexual and reproductive health. We have startedthe groundwork to establish the program,starting with engaging key stakeholders, andof course in this technological age, working outthe best way to provide an electronically-basedcomponent to the program. The first few monthshave been an exciting journey; we look forwardto much more of the same over coming years.Congratulations to all MCWH staff who haveworked incredibly hard this year on theirprograms and projects, and many thanks toall MCWH supporters, program participants,partners, members and stakeholders who havecontributed to making this year a huge success.dr adele murdoloexecutive director3