Annual Luncheon - Thursday December 4 2014

At this time of the year we pause, in the company of colleagues and friends, looking forward to the summer break and reflecting  on the successes - and failures perhaps - of our year’s work. Sadly as the three reports in this newsletter on ending violence in the community show, there is still work to be done when we return refreshed in the New Year.

We are honoured to have with us at the luncheon, our Patron in Chief, Mrs Elizabeth Chernov, wife of the Governor of Victoria, the Hon Alex Chernov.

The guest speaker is Elida Brereton FACE FACEL whose topic is ‘Adventures Along the Silk Road’.

Our fund raising at the Luncheon is generously supported by our affiliated organisations who have contributed to the table centre pieces forming a ‘Display of Festive Baskets of many nations’. Guests are encouraged to move round the room to look at the baskets and greet those at other tables.

Generous members and friends have helped us ensure that  a quarter of those in attendance are the young women who have helped our umbrella organisation during 2014 as volunteers, interns, Advisers and as members of short term working groups like the YoungNCWVic group who are preparing for the 2015 My Vote My Voice event in March as our contribution to International Women’s Day celebrations.

There is also an opportunity for donations to be made to support the Purple House Social Enterprise, health promotion projects of the Western Desert NWPT Aboriginal Corporation. Those of us who visited Alice Springs for the NCWA Mid-Term conference in May were able to visit the Purple House in Alice Springs, winner of the Ethical Enterprise Award in 2013. It is a non-government, not-for-profit, indigenous governed health organisation, established when Western Desert people who knew the need for remote area renal dialysis and health promotion programs, decided to ignore the lack of encouragement by the NT  and the Australian Government and raise their own funds.

See www.caritas.org.au for further information.