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?

When we say they get help with debt or paying bills, this means negotiating payment plans and teaching them how to pay their bills using their own money.

CCCI, you'll get scant understanding and comprehension from many people on this ultra conservative forum. Many of them are overt racists in the extreme, with nothing but hatred and fear of darker skinned people and cultures outside of their "whites only" culture, that they falsely call "Australian" culture. Yes, they really believe that "Australian" culture is a "whites only" culture.

These forum racists, like Rehctub and Hasbeen (and a handful of other old men here) don't comprehend the "factual" history of Australia. They are racists through and through, and they just don't care. No matter what you or anyone says to them, they will never change their racist dogma, and they will go to the grave that way.

Luckily there are many people in Australia who care, and these people throughout the past 2 centuries have welcomed new and different cultures; cultures that have made a magnificent contribution to Australia's diversity, wealth and humanity.

Thank you for your post Nhoj, it is people like you who make Australia such a beautiful place to live :)

Sounds like discrimination to me.

....Luckily there are many people in Australia who care, and these people throughout the past 2 centuries have welcomed new and different cultures; cultures that have made a magnificent contribution to Australia's diversity, wealth and humanity.

Oh yes, they really have fitted in well and been an asset. So tell me, why is it that after their years here, working, as you say, they still require an interpreter?

I thought the aim for immigration was to have them assimilate.

As for past immigrants, as I have told you before, you are living in the past, as today's imigants, many of them being illegal arrivals, have wanting to assimilate as the last thing on their minds, as many if them are still in Orr of the fact that they can turn up here, uninvited in many cases, or, with baggage like a religion that harbors violence, and getbthe welcome mat layer out for them and their 11 kids.

We are such fools!

Now as for the many you say who care, simply find one thousand of them and ask that they all put in just $54 each. Can't be that hard, surely.

Ah, Rehctub's reply proves the point I made in the first 2 paragraphs of my previous post. Thanks Rehctub..

After reading the posts of CCCI, I am glad that at last the NSW government has stopped grants to this group. I wonder how much has been thrown in this direction over the 40 years of multiculturalism.

I see the asylum seekers as shonks and con artists who get here by bribery and deceit. I could say a lot more, but it is obvious to most.

Well here is the chance for the pseudo multiculturalists to show their support. They can put their hand in their pockets, but me thinks they only make noise, not practical help.

Yes, unfortunately N, saying it as it is is now considered racist, unless of cause the shoe is on the other foot, as is often the case with some of our own.

Careful Banyo, because apparently speaking the truth is racisist.

The real truth is, if someone can't make a go of it here, they can't make a go of it anywhere,As we are so soft it makes you puke, so, if they have been here for years and still have to rely on this type of help, then that's not our fault, is it.

Tonight is budget night and Minister Morrison is expected to announce a merger of Customs and Immigration into a 'Border force'. With the closure of many detention centres

There will be a further $260m saving from the government’s decision to abolish Labor’s family reunion program for asylum seekers who arrive by boat.

Now that is a move long overdue and I welcome it. Why should we pay for family reunions for illegals who gate crash our country. It will remove another incentive to come here. In fact the whole family reunion sham needs looking at and amended. It has long been rorted.

Looks like Morrison is doing a great job. Look forward to hearing more of his plans

Yes Banyo, I agree he is doing a great job, of a very difficult situation that was born through sheer ignorance and incompitance of the then Rudd government.

Not only is Morrison doing a great job, but he's doing the job that neither the creator of the problem, nor his successor came even close to achieving.

In short, Scott Morrison and Tony Abbott achieven in less than SIX MONTHS what labor failed to achieve in SIX YEARS.

With all the proposed budget pain on the horizon, one can't help but wonder where we would be today had one Keven 07 not been such a media tart who managed to suck so many in with his spin.