May Murray Neighbourhood Centre has provided essential community services to the people of Sydney for almost 40 years. We provide information, advocacy, support and referrals (unfunded) as well as two Home and Community Care programs for Arabic and Vietnamese speaking people. We recently changed our name to Community and Cultural Connections Inc. (CCCi).
CCCi is a State icon. It has provided support and services to our diverse multicultural community by assisting our clients to reduce isolation, manage debt, gain employment, stay healthy, communicate and access other providers, we provide translation services, and many other necessary services.

After 40 years of providing essential services and support, (in less than two weeks) this institution will be faced with closure. The burden of care will be transferred to other local providers who are already at capacity and/or under stress
Cultural Community Connections was notified in February 2014 that they were not successful with their grant to the Department of Health and Ageing for an amount of funding that would have significantly solved this issue.
The current Arabic and Vietnamese Speakers HACC funded program does not cover administrative and management support; without it the program is unsustainable

What can be done?
To survive another year on a shoe-string the CCCi will need to raise 54K in the next two weeks.

Who stands to lose?
The Arabic and Vietnamese communities and their families. We estimate that up to 500 people will be directly affected by the loss of these programs. No other organisation in the area provides this service.
The general community who rely on the CCCi to understand their entitlements and their rights and who to go to when there are difficulties and questions. We estimate that a further 1500 people will be affected by the loss of our self-funded services no other organisation in the area provides services in this way, in the holistic manner that CCCi does.

To make a donation:
- visit www.ccci.org.au/donations
- See our Pozible project http://www.pozible.com/project/177878
- Or mail your cheque to: Building 1, 142 Addison Road, Marrickville NSW 2204.

You say, make a donation, yet you also say, we need $54K.

The problem is, that if you can get 54 donors to donate $500 each, you still loose and they loose their collective $27K as well.

Sorry to sound racist, but I think we have far more worthy local issues to deal with.

Hi rehctub,

Thank you for your comment. Your concerns about what would happen to the money in that case are well founded. If that were to happen CCCI would donate the money raised to another local organisation or multiple organisations.

I understand you don't think what CCCI does is very worthy.

CCCI provides support for all Australian residents who approach us- we provide advocacy for those who cannot advocate for themselves so they can access services, understand their rights, pay bills and participate in the local community.

We provide social support to take clients to the doctor, ensure they are taking the right medications and have food to eat in the house.

Our day care groups reduce isolation, keep older people out of nursing homes longer, provide carer respite and reduce the need for in home care.

We are on the organising committee of Community A Fair, a new inner west Sydney community hub with over 50 different service providers in one place monthly.

We run free English conversation classes to help people communicate.

We run free computer classes in community languages, collect household donations for asylum seekers, run a support group for asylum seekers and a Youth Theatre Group.

We currently have 15 volunteers training in their area of interest.

As we have an ageing population HACC services are more important now than ever.

Perhaps this cause doesn't seem very worthy to you because many of the Australian's we help are migrants? Might I remind you the traditional owners of this land are the Aboriginals and unless you fit into that category you were once a migrant too.

......Perhaps this cause doesn't seem very worthy to you because many of the Australian's we help are migrants? Might I remind you the traditional owners of this land are the Aboriginals and unless you fit into that category you were once a migrant too.

As too were they, as they arrived here from somewhere. So, were they traditional owners, or did they simply claim ownership, albeit some 200 odd years later.

Sorry, I can't get my head around someone owning something unless they bought it, or inherited it.

Well lets hope so.

The last thing we need in Oz is an organisation teaching recent arrivals how to get as much as possible from the Oz tax payer.

Have you ever thought of teaching these bludgers how to support themselves, & not be a drain on the existing citizens.

No of course not.

The migrants we help are not new arrivals- they are people over 65 years of age who have lived and worked in Australia but are now retired and suffer from social isolation and increased health risks. They are not given financial support, nor are the asylum seekers.

The asylum seekers we help in our support group are about to be sent back to their home country. We provide them with emotional and social support during their last days here as they come to terms with returning to their home country where in some cases they may face jail or death.

Asylum seekers are not allowed to work or volunteer in Australia. They also receive no financial support from the government at all. We DO NOT provide them with financial support, only second hand household goods to get by which are donated by the local community. These people are well educated and intelligent, speak English and usually need no training however it is illegal for them to work or volunteer so I'm not sure what you would like them to do to support themselves?