Imagine today is another beautiful day and you feel so happy.
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You want to scream your lungs out, you want to tell everyone how grateful and lucky you feel. The sun shines and touches your cheeks provoking you that spark inside your soul.
A scream from your guts... Wait... nobody understands what you are saying, you try with all the languages you know but they only speak one, they answer with voices.
How can you explain the voices how do you feel? Your head is spinning.
Who would understand you?
The voices are winning; they have started building a wall around you.
The wall is so high now they cannot even see you anymore. They do not know anything about you, they cannot. You are invisible, you are tired and there's no one who will understand.
Hard isn't it?
In Lithgow, fortunately community knows the language, it is called inclusiveness.
With the help of the Department of Home Affairs, Fostering Integration Grants program and Multicultural NSW, LINC has made those voices to make sense, while breaking the walls to social isolation, negotiating positive diversity and common life.
Once a month culturally diverse people gather together in order to spend some time together, to meet new people in the community, to network, and share knowledge.
We gather to learn new skills or just have a yarn.
It could be held anywhere, from a pamper day at LINC head office, a visit to Newnes Hotel to enjoy their home made pizzas and have a walk in the beautiful Wollemi national park, to a PotLock under the sun at Wenthworth Falls lake.
Funday Monday are spent enjoying food from all over the world, celebrating Chinese New Year, watching a documentary, meeting representatives from local mainstream services and meeting new friends.
Our Lithgow multicultural community takes seriously the fact that Lithgow has been declared a refugee Welcome Zone.
As a result, we had the visit of the Australian/ Indonesian filmmaker Alfred Pek, who came to share with us his new documentary "Freedom Street", this documentary provided to us an insight of the struggle of three people as they look towards an uncertain future as asylum seekers.
Alfred also shared his migration experience and his love for Australia.
But is not only "what you know, it's (also) who you know."
On Monday and Wednesday, LINC has an exclusive designated worker to support the implementation and sustainability of all ventures our Lithgow multicultural community wants to implement, as well as support solutions to difficulties in a way that helps community shape and exercise control over their physical, social, economic and cultural environments.
From resume writing, exploring volunteer opportunities in the community, creating links between members of the community for possible job experiences and proactive community participation.
So, if you ever find yourself without anything to do on a Monday (the first of the month) but you feel like having a buzz of what Lithgow has to offer, come and join us.
We will show you what Lithgow is all about.
What do you think?
Send a letter or your thoughts to the Lithgow Mercury.