Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It was my pleasure on Saturday to open the Victorian branch of the Australian Relief Organisation. This is a philanthropic organisation which was established in New South Wales in 2012. It is a not-for-profit, non-governmental organisation involved in development, relief and advocacy projects and activities in Australia and overseas. ARO's mission statement specifically declares that their activities are aimed at helping people in need without regard to race, gender, age, religion or social status. This is a mission statement that I can strongly support, and I was very pleased to open their Victorian chapter.

Examples of their activities include visits to hospitals, to aged care centres and to correctional facilities, to provide community support to those marginalised and in dire situations in the community. In Sydney, ARO has established a social inclusion visits program that calls on volunteers to visit the elderly at a number of aged-care facilities, and ARO also assists migrants and refugees through skills training; helps orphans and families in financial hardship; and collects clothes, shoes, bags and homewares to send to communities affected by natural disasters including the most recent—the Sri Lankan floods and the Nepal earthquake. I would like to congratulate Ali Goru, the state manager of the Victorian branch, for the wonderful work that I anticipate that he and his board of directors will do in aiding the community both here and abroad.