As you probably know, Tuesday 25 April is ANZAC day and there will again be a dawn service held down at Alphington Park, at the war memorial just near Alphington Bowls Club. You can then pop in to the Club to have a warming tea or coffee and a chat. Thanks local friends for once again organising this event for our community.

Hi all, as you might know, the Darebin neighbourhood houses had the opportunity to visit Timor-Leste a few years ago to progress conversations about how we could work collaboratively and share learnings with the active women’s organisations in Baucau, Timor-Leste. The trip was run by Friends of Baucau, which is a not for profit organisation that actively supports the long standing partnership agreement between the municipality of Baucau and Darebin Council and Yarra Council - dating back to the independence of Timor-Leste.

It is a fascinating country and we share extraordinary history as Australians - from WW2 and through the independence struggle.

The upcoming Friends of Baucau AGM is going to be held before a one-off screening of the film Circle of Silence at Westgarth Cinema (see details below).

If you are interested in seeing this documentary based on the book by Shirley Shackleton, you can pre-purchase tickets from OnDemand Films. Here is the link. They cost $24 and Friends of Baucau is also hoping for a $10 donation (at the door) to support their fundraising efforts.

Hopefully I will see you there. Leanne

Join in the celebrations!

We are very fortunate to have Phil volunteer his time weekly to help anyone in our community who needs assistance with their devices … phones, tablets, laptops and lately even printers! He’s a master of all things computery ….

Phil is generally here on Tuesday afternoon from 2-4pm, but in Term 2 the times will change for 6 weeks - to Wednesdays from 10am-12pm. This will start from Wednesday 26 April (our first day back) and run through to Wednesday 7 June.

So … if you need help with your device (you are having trouble setting up your new phone, your tablet is doing strange things, you’re email isn’t working across your devices, you need some tips of how to use Word or Excel etc.) you are more than welcome to come along and he’ll do his best to help you. To book in just call Kalimna in our office on 9499 7227 (she is here Tuesday and Thursday).

We often have enquiries about art classes, so we’re excited that Clare (who is here on Friday running Gardening Group in the morning and AAA Art in the afternoon) is starting a new Art Class in Term 2.

She will be running it in the new light-filled Bellfield Community Hub, just up the road in Bellfield … (hooray - you’ll be able to stop in at Tamby Food and buy some treats on the way home - I noticed it has reopened last time I went past).

Clare’s social and fun small group adult art classes will run on Wednesdays from 10am-12pm with Term 2 beginning on 17th May and running for 5 weeks. The cost is $225 and her classes are suitable for beginners and also intermediate artists.

This term the focus will be on COMPOSITION & COLOUR in LANDSCAPE ART.

Visit Clare’s website swirlart.com.au to find out more and book in. Or you can call her on 0423453160.