Multilink Held Seminar For Chin Refugees In Australia
A one-day seminar on ‘Roles and Responsibilities of Management Committee’ was for the very first time held today for Chin refugees based in Queensland, Australia.
The event which was organised by Multilink Community Services Inc. and sponsored by Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, had more than 20 Chin participants.
This hands-on training was arranged as part of the community services providing useful information and improving skills for community management and organisational cooperation techniques to especially newly arrived refugees.
“We are very happy to have this opportunity. By attending the seminar, we get to know more about the community, its services, roles and responsibilities of the staff members and how it is run,” Seminar Facilitator and Secretary of Chin Community in Queensland, Niung Hlawnching told Chinland Guardian.
“This seminar will help us lay a good foundation for Chin community movement, and bring better understanding and unity among the Chin people not only in this state but in the whole country,” added Niung Hlawnching, hoping this programme will be continued in the future.
In recent months, the Chin communities and churches across the world held a series of conferences and seminars in their respective residing countries as part of the programmes to protect and promote cultural values, unity and understanding among the Chin people.
Chin refugees currently residing in Australia’s Queensland State formed Chin Community in Queensland in a meeting held on 5 July, 2008. It is estimated that there are more than 2000 Chin refugees living in Australia. Most of them came as refugees under UNHCR settlement programme mainly from Malaysia and India.
There are an estimated 30,000 Chin refugees in Malaysia and about 60,000 in India, according to Chin Human Rights Organisation. The Chin people fled their native place, running away from the callous brutalities and systematic oppression by Burma’s ruling military regime.
Multilink Community Services Inc., winner of 2007 Multicultural Awards, was formed in 1989 by a group of overseas-born residents of Logan City of South East Queensland, Australia to assist migrants and refugees with services needed.
