Refugee Week is an annual celebration, informing the public about refugees and celebrating their contributions and this year’s (Sunday 19th – Saturday 25th) had the theme ‘Healing’.
Healesville RAR (Rural Australians for Refugees) showed the highly acclaimed film ‘Scattered People” at an event on Friday 24 June, a compelling documentary about the unifying and therapeutic power of music.
The film was followed by a scrumptious supper and the attendees, from Maryknoll, Warburton and more locally, were then treated to a musical performance by Wood’Wire and friends. Generous donations received will assist Healesville RAR in further supporting donations to ASRC and to the Brigidine Asylum Seekers Project; regular phone recharge costs for refugees, who were in detention, in New Guinea; assisting ‘Gifts for Manus and Nauru’ with phone cards; and towards involvement in social activities for refugee families living within Yarra Ranges.
Healesville RAR has produced a CD called Homespun which retails for $20 plus postage (nominally $5). If readers would like to buy one or some to support our work, that would be awesome.
The group’s aim is for an Australia in which asylum seekers and refugees are treated with dignity and humanity, not with punishment and cruelty. We need to show values of fairness and generosity towards those who are vulnerable and in need of sanctuary.
For more information about Healesville RAR email: rar.healesville@gmail.com or check out our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/HealesvilleRAR
