And the second half of 2024 is underway! 📈

We hope you're on track to achieve the rest of your goals this year, because you sure are kicking goals changing the lives of others with your amazing work running health promotion sessions in the community.

In June alone, 37 of you delivered 50 sessions, to approximately 754 participants covering 17 different topics!! 🤯🤯🤯

Scroll down to hear more about your amazing work this month...

Do you have friends, family members or colleagues passionate about improving health literacy? We are seeking new volunteers from a range of healthcare professions, including (but not limited to) nurses, doctors, physiotherapists, pharmacists, occupational therapists, final year medical students and more! 🩺💊🦴

After completing a volunteer induction, they will be able to sign up to facilitate sessions when it suits them. Invite them to become part of our growing team of healthcare volunteers on Zoom Tuesday, 30th of July, at 6:30pm.

Tell them they can find out more and sign up here!

If you are an experienced volunteer and would also like to come along to help on the day, please email tracy@thewaterwellproject.org.

100 Women was born from a dream that if 100 women could be found who would contribute $100 a month, they would collectively have $120,000 to give away to support worthwhile causes that benefit women and girls. In August 2022, they reached $1,000,000 of collective giving!

The Water Well Project is excited to receive a $50,000 grant from 100 Women to facilitate health education sessions for women and girls across 2024 and 2025. This provides us with a wonderful opportunity to make a difference to the health and wellbeing of women and girls from multicultural communities in Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania. The coming months are filling with lots of sessions.

Please join with us and 100 Women by signing up to facilitate a session now.

This month, we thought it would be great to introduce you to another Water Well Project team member. Caitlin is our Grants Officer, one of a small number of staff who work behind the scenes to enable us to do what we do with our health education sessions in multicultural communities:

"As someone who works in the background of The Water Well Project, I don't often get to see the impact of our sessions firsthand. It was a privilege to watch volunteers in action at the beginning of the year at a Mental Health and Wellbeing session (where I actually picked up some helpful tips for myself!) but for the most part, I sit behind the scenes in my role as Grants Officer.

What I love to do each month is read the testimonials shared by our session participants and our wonderful volunteers. In these stories, I see beautiful and authentic interactions between our volunteers and participants. I love hearing how a participants' curiosity is met with a positive discussion, or how our volunteers intentionally make space to explore someone's questions, assumptions or doubts. One of my favourite types of testimonials are actually the ones shared by our volunteers about how sessions have impacted them. I think this is a really beautiful part of the Water Well Project model and paints a picture of community, sharing and partnership.

I will often include testimonials from both participants and volunteers in my grant applications. These are the gems that help to tell The Water Well Project's story and show our mission, impact, and the heart behind our work. Thank you for your amazing work on the front lines!!"

Caitlin Douglas, Grants Officer

[Have you learned anything from the session that may impact the way you practice in your usual healthcare setting?] "There were varying levels of knowledge in the group, so it worked well to assess degrees of knowledge prior to beginning the session. This is also important in clinical practice, when describing a condition or treatment to patients"

Healthcare Professional Facilitator, MiCare, Multicultural Seniors Group

"I think it was an excellent opportunity to have a health care professional come to our class to speak with our students.  Often our students lack confidence to speak in public situations so this worked well.  Students asked questions and received valuable answers from somebody "in the know"."

Community Representative, TasTAFE

"We are so grateful to TWWP for their invaluable work which they are providing for free for our CALD community groups to raise their awareness about health issues from medical and occupational therapy perspectives."

Community Representative, Foundation House, Syriac Men's Seniors Group

"The session was useful because often students from other countries with English as an additional language can be challenged by the process and technicality of dealing with medical issues and where to go and for what."

Community Representative, TasTAFE, EAL class

[How would you describe The Water Well Project's contribution to your community group?] "The Water Well Project have a significant positive impact on our community's health literacy. Our community are more aware of health conditions and preventions of diseases. These empowers them to manage their own health aswell as make an informed decision about their health."

Community Representative, Chin Community, Women's Community Group

"I need to look after my mental health before being able to help others with theirs."

Community Participant, Glen Eira Adult Learning Centre, EAL Class

"I thought a healthy diet was enough, but I now know that I need a more integrated approach to looking after my health, that includes exercise, sleep and social connection."

Community Participant, Glen Eira Adult Learning Centre, EAL Class

Thanks to the City of Melton, we have facilitated 10 health education sessions for multicultural community groups in Melton over the past year.

Local Government Area funding like that provided by the City of Melton is important to ensure areas with high migrant, refugee and asylum seeker populations benefit from our health education service.

Donate today to give the gift of health literacy to people from migrant, refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds.

No longer wish to volunteer with The Water Well Project?