Invitation To The AVWA’s Fundraising Gala Dinner To Support Refugees
And To Celebrate Our 35th Anniversary
Forty three years ago, after the communist takeover of South Vietnam on 30th April 1975, Vietnamese refugees started to arrive in Australia. This year, during Refugee Week, to both celebrate the 35th anniversary of our organisation and support the refugee cause - on behalf of the Committee of Management and as the founder - I am writing to invite you to join our Fundraising Dinner on Friday 22-06-2018.
With a staff of 140, AVWA provides a wide range of services to Vietnamese Victorians of all ages and genders. While we have much to celebrate now, we acknowledge our former refugee status and want to give back. We believe that our members, clients, staff and community in general would like the opportunity to contribute generously to the many refugees who are currently in dire need worldwide.
The closest to us and most miserable refugee group is the million Rohingya refugees who fled persecution and massacre in Myanmar and escaped to Bangladesh (one of the most densely populated countries in the world, the size of Victoria but with a population of 150 million). In the last quarter of 2017, 700,000 Rohingya people crossed the border, nearly 400,000 of them were children! The monsoon rains are coming, and their shelters were only constructed from plastic sheets and bamboo. The floods could cause overflowing toilets and the contamination of drinking water. And that is when diarrhoea, which causes severe dehydration and death, strikes. The Rohingya refugees are in a much worse situation than Vietnamese refugees in the 1970’s and 80’s. There are millions of refugees worldwide now and there is compassion fatigue.
That is the reason why, we are organising a Fundraising Gala Dinner, this year. AVWA will meet all the costs: five-course dinner, soft-drinks, song and dance performances. All proceeds from tickets, donations, raffles, auction etc. will go towards supporting the Rohingya refugees.
Where: Happy Receptions (new venue with plenty of parking space)
199 Sunshine Road, Tottenham
When: Friday 22/06/2018 from 18:00 to 22:00
Ticket: $75 (or $700 for a table of 10)
Your presence would be a great honour to our organisation.
Please contact our offices for reservations or donations. . Donations over $2 are tax deductible.
Looking forward to seeing you.
Yours sincerely,
Mrs Cam Nguyen,
Secretary and CEO