Sada-e-Watan
Sydney ™
sadaewatan@gmail.com
SAMAA
Celebrates Jashne Buzurg 2011 at the Auburn Town Hall Sydney
(Coverage by: Syed Zafar Hussain, Editor-in-Chief
Sada-e-Watan Sydney)
South Asian Muslim Association
of Australia (SAMAA) celebrated its annual event, Jashne Buzurg 2011, on
12 March at Auburn Town Hall Sydney. Nearly 300 people, including a number of
parliamentarians, representatives from aged care agencies, representatives from
Islamic and South Asian community organisations along with a large number of
elderly & their families, volunteers and well wishers attended the event.
Federal Minister for Ageing Hon. Mark Butler sent a video message while those in
attendance included Auburn MP and Minister for Mental Health Hon. Barbara
Perry, Minister for Industrial
Relations, Commerce, Energy,
The first segment featured the 100th birthday celebrations of the eldest South Asian Muslim, Begum Alia Khatoon Siddiqui. Alia Khatoon, lovingly called by many in the community as Ammi, was overwhlemed as her life story was told in brief by Mona Zahid and a slide show depicted some important events of her life from an early age. She was presented a flower boquet by Mrs Kaniz Fatimah and then crowned as the birthday girl who cut her 100th Birthday cake with a loud applause from the audience.
Hon. Mark Butler in his video message acknowledged SAMAA's contribution in caring for the South Asian Muslim elderly. He spoke about our submission to the productivity commission, which had detailed specific issues relating to our community and has assured his support in SAMAA’s future endeavours. He spoke of Productivity Commission Draft Report published in Jan 2011 which included recommendations into Caring for Older Australians. He also spoke of value of Multicultural Australia and current government's commitment to it. Hon Barbara Perry was very appreciative of SAMAA's effort and guaranteed full support from her office in achieving the objectives of SAMAA. Hon Paul Lynch astutely pointed out that old age should be celebrated rather than looked at as a burden, while stressing the need for higher resources due to the rapid growth of our ageing population. Hon. Shoquette Moslemane spoke of the multicultural nature of the NSW society, explained the structure of the South Asian Muslim community and assured SAMAA of his support for the provision of culturally appropriate care to South Asian Muslims. Hon. John Robertson was pleased to represent Premier Kristina Keneally and spoke about the importance of multiculturalism and assured support to SAMAA from Premier's office. MC Dr Muhammad Ali Khan engaged the audience through his comments over remarks by various parliamentarians. Hon. Barbara Perry also presented SAMAA's volunteering awards to Aamina Un Nabi, Saminah Ahmad and Rubinah Ahmad.
The
guest speaker, Dr Perminder Sachdev, delivered a captivating talk on Alzhiermers
Disease, detailing various critical issues and highlighting the need for
both medical and psychological therapies for the aged. Alzheimer's Disease is a
common neurological disorder, impairing memory and behaviour. It usually affects
those over the age of 65, and early diagnosis is important. As the disease
progresses, a high level of support and care is required, and therefore such
facilities are paramount in making it easier for patients and their families to
cope with its implications. Ongoing physical and mental activity, healthy diet,
regular health checks, a healthy social life and developing good habits are key
factors in reducing the risks. Ms Sue field drew the attention of the elderly to
legal issues such as wills, Centrelink benefits and aspects of various kinds of
aged care accommodations.
SAMAA official Mr Zahid Jamil briefed the audience about various SAMAA
programmes and its efforts in accessing facilities for South Asian Muslims from
various government departments. SAMAA is seeking support and is willing to
cooperate with all departments, aged care agencies and organisations in
developing aged care programmes for the Muslim elderly. It seeks to inform South
Asian Muslim elderly about these programmes and about their rights and
opportunities to partake in these and utilize their facilities. At the same
time, SAMAA is also engaged in liaising with various aged care agencies and
providers about the requirements more specific to the cultural and religious
needs of South Asian Muslims so that they tune their services to suit the needs
of our elderly.
The audience was advised of the upcoming workshops SAMAA has arranged to conduct in various Sydney suburbs over the next seven months. These workshops will be organised by a health care agency "Care Connect" with the support of SAMAA, and are funded by Ageing, Disability and Home Care NSW as part of the Positive Ageing Grant 2011. There will be no charge for the sessions. The workshops will be held at Richmond, Blacktown, Auburn, Bankstown, Campbelltown, Hornsby, Rockdale, Punchbowl and also in country centres such as Bathurst and Tweedheads. All South Asian Muslim elderly and their families are urged to attend these workshops which will enable them to have better access to all the facilities in the area. These workshops will also provide an opportunity to the elderly to inform aged care providers in their area about their specific needs, more particularly about their religious and cultural aspects.
Mr Jamil also mentioned about SAMAA having entered into arrangements with two nursing homes in Sydney to provide culturally appropriate care to South Asian Muslim elderly. Curie Nursing Home at Oatlands would suit community members living in Western and North Western Sydney. Whereas Wallgrove Aged Care facility at Lakemba would suit the people living in South and South Western Sydney. At both these facilities, only halal food is served. They staff South Asian employees who speak some of our languages. They also arrange for namaz and wuzu and are willing to provide care to suit our cultural needs.
One of the pertinent challenges facing SAMAA is the building of its own facility. It is a very expensive exercise which would need fund raising from the community and grants from the government. SAMAA is willing to consider that various Muslim bodies join hands and a larger facility is built to accommodate all Muslims with subsections for individual ethnic groups to cater for their food/language needs etc. SAMAA officials and the president of AFIC, Mr Ikebal Patel, intend to work together to explore such opportunities.
Targeting the parliamentarians, Zahid Jamil drew attention to the lack of funding to SAMAA from aged care departments at both the federal and state level. While other aged care agencies, such as Care Connect, have received grants from the NSW government after their introduction to South Asian Muslims through SAMAA, SAMAA itself is yet to see those dollars from concerned aged care departments. Both Federal and State governments are urged to look at the South Asian Muslim community more favorably so that SAMAA is able to provide the aged of our community what they deserve.
Currently, however, the main challenge SAMAA faces is to reach out to all the elderly of the South Asian Muslim community. For this purpose SAMAA has been running a program ‘Senior Citizens Project’ having received a grant from the NSW Community Relations Commission. A community worker has been engaged in telephone campaigns for elderly and volunteer registration. It is requested kindly that the community help SAMAA to reach out to each and every elderly of the community.
Finally, Zahid
Jamil emphasized that everyone in the community can play a role, and a kind
donation to SAMAA is greatly appreciated. Without community support, it will not
be possible to build our own facilities, since the government offers only
partial grants. SAMAA is in the process of applying for deductible gift
recipient (DGR) status and if approved, it will make donations to SAMAA tax
deductible.
Following this, a short film produced by Mobinah Ahmad depicted the issues faced
by the elderly of migrant communties in a humurous manner. Actors Zia Ahmad,
Masood Husseini and Abu Fateh thrilled the audience by their acting. This film
is availabale on YouTube under the title 'SAMAA Buzurg Village' at the following
link :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
The programme also included presentations from sponsors Muslim Aid, MCCA and Crescent Travel. The gathering enjoyed delicious sub-continental cuisine. The evening concluded with entertaining songs and ghazals by an emerging Sydney artist Beetha.To know more about SAMAA OR to make a donation, please visit their website.
http://samaa.org.au/home/home/
----- http://samaa.org.au/home/
