Blue Mountains Refugee Support Group Inc AGM 2018-2019

By Joy Connor Chair BMRSG

2018 -2019 saw an increase in aggressive negative rhetoric towards our asylum seeker friends. It saw the end of hope for a more compassionate policy for several years. In the eighteenth year of our existence, the AGM was a time to revisit what keeps us going: the vision of a caring, inclusive community that starts with affirming each other. 

We affirmed all the hard work that goes into providing friendship and practical support to refugee families and to people in detention, the wonderful events and fund raisers which have inspired us during the year; from the book launch when we spoke by Skype to Behrouz Boochani’s on Manus to the Spooky Men and the Trivia night to mention just a few. Eleven teams have been working this year on activities as varied as letter writing, education, and carsfor refugees and community development with our Tibetan community. Over one hundredthousand dollars was raised and then spent this year on various areas of refugee and asylum seeker support.