18–22 September 2023
Living in Australia Program (LAP)
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Last month's program had 35 participants from Democratic Republic of the Congo, Syria, Guatemala, Afghanistan, Myanmar and Ukraine. Almost all had been in Australia for only 2-3 months. Some spoke good English, but a group of older participants who spoke almost no English.
This program could never run without the generosity and support of our homestay hosts – 23 this time – who invited our guests into their homes. Or the 37 classroom volunteers who worked with small groups or (for those with almost no English) one to one.
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11–15 April 2023
Living in Australia Program (LAP)
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Formerly called Learn English Holiday (LEH), the April program was held at Immanuel Lutheran College. We were very grateful to have the use of such wonderful facilities and the support of several other organisations and people: Community Underwriting, Buddies’ public liability insurance provider who gave us a grant to fund both 2023 LAPs; St John’s College Nambour, Wildlife HQ, Immanuel Church volunteers and Kendall, Linsey, Ziena, Jemima, Gun and Mu-raay.
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12 November 2022
Buddies 20th Anniversary Dinner
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Buddies members recently enjoyed a night of celebration and festivities at a multicultural buffet with entertainment held at Connections on King in Buderim
Ex-Director Paul McKinlay and special guest Barbara Brewster, founder of Buddies, reminisced about the early years of Buddies and launched the recently produced book 20 years in the making.
The event also included a buffet prepared by Siva, recent proprietor of Raj Restaurant in Noosaville and an exhibition of multicultural dancing.
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18-23 September 2022
Learn English Holiday
Lesley Willcoxson
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Our homestay hosts and classroom volunteers have missed the opportunity to share their lives with our refugee guests due to COVID-19, so this LEH program was extra special!
On this occasion we had 26 participants in the program - from Ukraine (11) Iran (3), Afghanistan (5), Tibet (2), Iraq (4) and Syria (1). Along with the 17 adults and a teenager we also hosted 8 children under the age of 8, most of whom were here as part of a single-parent, female-led family. We therefore not only ran a program for adults but also ran a separate full program for the children.
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