{"id":3297,"date":"2014-04-30T20:56:49","date_gmt":"2014-04-30T10:56:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sjaroundthebay.org\/?p=3297"},"modified":"2014-04-30T20:56:49","modified_gmt":"2014-04-30T10:56:49","slug":"sa-launch-the-welcome-dinner-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sjaroundthebay.org\/?p=3297","title":{"rendered":"SA Launch the ‘Welcome Dinner Project’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\n
(A tribute to Penny Elsley who initiate this project in the Newton, Sydney).<\/p>\n

– from the Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee Office<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe arrived as strangers and departed as friends.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Adam Whitefield<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Friday evening the 21st<\/sup>\u00a0March (Harmony Day) our Build the Bridge Volunteers, in partnership with Sydney non-profit organisation\u00a0Joining the Dots<\/em>, hosted the South Australian launch of\u00a0\u2018The Welcome Dinner Project\u2019<\/strong>. Our SA dinner coincided with a large gathering and exhibition in Sydney\u2019s Martin Place that was featured on ABC News the following evening.<\/p>\n

In essence, Welcome Dinners are designed to provide a space for newly arrived people and other Australians to meet over dinner conversation in the comfort of their own home. The aim of the dinners is to create a platform for meaningful connection, sparking friendships between people of diverse cultures who are living in close proximity to one another but have not had an opportunity to connect in a supported environment.<\/p>\n

Initially, I was unsure how many guests we\u2019d attract given this was our very first dinner. However, with a couple of days to go I became more worried about whether we would have enough space to accommodate the swelling numbers! Clearly, there is a strong need and desire out there in the community for people to connect, and these kinds of structured dinners provide the perfect platform to do so.<\/p>\n

In total we had just under 30 guests in attendance, consisting of individuals and families from countries as diverse as Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, PNG, Sierra Leone, Burundi, Ireland and of course, Australia.<\/p>\n

The night began with some formal introductions and the sharing of the word \u2018welcome\u2019 in each of the native languages. It never ceases to amaze me how such a simple concept of welcome can be understood so universally, but often not lived out as authentically here in Australia.<\/p>\n

A key focus of the dinners is the sharing of a meal, with each guest invited to bring a plate of food from their home culture, or something they simply love to eat. This was a huge highlight of the evening, not only because of the delicious foods many of us tried for the first time, but importantly, because people really lit up when sharing about their dish. You could sense people\u2019s pride at being able to share something that was so special to them.\u00a0 Also in doing so, any initial nervousness or hesitance within the group completely dissipated. Food is one of those things that is just so universal and so sacred, that no communication barriers can stop it from bringing people together.<\/p>\n

One of our final activities on the night was collating people\u2019s feedback on their highlights from the evening. Overwhelmingly people loved \u201cthe many lovely foods\u201d, \u201clistening to people\u2019s stories\u201d and \u201cmeeting many nice new friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Often the nature of conversation in Australia around newly arrived people can be quite negative and insular. However, what became so clear from our very first Welcome Dinner was that the things that we share are so much more important than the things that make us different. We need to change the conversation.<\/p>\n

Finally, we are very much looking forward to organising more dinners in the future, and if you would like to get involved \u2013 either as a guest, sponsor or a host \u2013 please feel free to drop me a line.<\/p>\n

apwhitefield@edmundrice.org<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>

(A tribute to Penny Elsley who initiate this project in the Newton, Sydney).<\/p>\n

– from the Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee Office<\/p>\n

\u201cWe arrived as strangers and departed as friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam Whitefield<\/p>\n

On Friday evening the 21st March (Harmony Day) our Build the Bridge Volunteers, in partnership with Sydney non-profit organisation Joining the Dots, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-messages","odd"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t