At Alphington Community Centre we have been working with the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre for may years now.

I can remember when the Fairfield Girl Guides Hall was still around, and I used to drop my darlings off there for dancing and the ASRC volunteer was also there each week to accept community donations.

When the Guides Hall was demolished, Becca invited that volunteer, the ‘old Andy’ (that is, the person back then who did the role that Andy does now) to park out the front of ACC, so he could come in and use the loos, and have a coffee … and feel like he had a home base again. And she provided a storage location so that non-perishable food could be dropped off throughout the week. And this is how ACC became a formal ASRC donation site.

That was probably 8 or 9 years ago I’d guess. And here we are today. Still doing the same thing.

There are lots of kind-hearted and generous people and organisations in our community who recognise that anyone who has had to flee their homeland must have seen tragedy and experienced hardship beyond our imagining - and also realise that asylum seekers in Australia are now stuck in an impossible situation, unsure of where they stand, unable to work and also without a government safety net for all the basics. So they take the time to regularly shop for them, and provide them with a bag of rice (and compassion) or shampoo and conditioner (and love) tins of tuna (and hope) or jar of honey (and care).

If you too would like make life a little easier for someone who is struggling in a sea of uncertainty, you can drop off non-perishable foods with us inside any time we are open. After hours (or in lockdown) you can leave donations in the dark grey roller door shed just inside our back garden. And Andy is here on Thursdays from 10am -12pm so you can also drop off perishable food then (like fresh fruit and vegies etc.). He’ll then take the whole lot over to the ASRC in Footscray for distribution.

If you are wondering what to donate, think about what you purchase each time you’re at the supermarket for your family - rice, pasta, tinned tomatoes and legumes, breakfast cereal, tinned tuna, peanut butter, honey, olive oil, herbs and spices, coffee and tea, toiletries etc. These basic staples that enable you to cook nutritious food for your family and keep clean and tidy are just the things that these families are wanting in their cupboards too.

To find out more about the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre click here.

Hooray! As of 11.46 Thursday morning I’m fully vaccinated. And Kalimna isn’t far behind. She’s having her second jab next week.

Kalimna and I both went to the Austin Health vaccination clinic just up the road at the Repat site. it is now running like a well-oiled machine - only 30 minutes this time, including the 15 minutes I had to hang around to make sure I didn’t have an anaphylactic reaction.

You can walk up for Astra Zeneca. You need to book for Pfizer. You can of course book for both by calling them on 1800 518 258.

Done and dusted!

By now we hope you have wandered past ACC on your daily walk and noticed the new art on our fence in the Alphington Neighbourhood Gallery.

If not, you should! The artist we are featuring this month is local Steph Briggs. The works on the fence include illustrations from a book that documented lots of familiar scenes from 2020, called ‘The year we stayed at home’. She also has some delicate sketches of houses from the neighbourhood and beyond (some done on commission if you are interested in documenting your own lovely house).

You can find out more about Steph here.

This community arts initiative is supported by Yarra City Council (thanks!).

Steph’s fur baby Leo is one of the stars of the exhibition.

Steph, Leo and Angus popped past on their lockdown walk to check it out.

Our Women in the Shed program is one of the local activities you can vote for down at Grilld Fairfield for the month of June. If we win we get $300 to buy some more tools!

Look out for us if you are in there and get the chance to vote (I’m not sure how it works in lockdown?!).