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International Women’s Day Breakfast - 10^th March 2023

As has become the tradition, SI of The Hills District hosted an IWD Breakfast event to conclude the week of celebration and advocacy work. Over one hundred members and guests joined the event at Rydges Norwest and enjoy a morning of fine food and outstanding presentations.

Aarya Sambyal (Castle Hill High School) and Mia Fogolin (Our Lady of Mercy College) spoke brilliantly and with passion. Aarya shared a poem from her HSC English Extension 1 portfolio entitled Who is She? and spoke passionately about how her mother was her inspiration. Mia presented on the topic of refugees and challenged the audience to question both the myths and realities associated with people who have fled war, violence, conflict or persecution and who are looking to find safety in Australia.

Our Keynote speaker, Rosanna Barbero the CEO of Addison Road Community Centre raised our awareness on how the increased cost of living has made food security a real issue for an increasing number of people across many communities. Guests to the event were encouraged to donate a food staple and large collection of food staples were packed up to support the vital work of The Addi Road Food Pantry.

The Addi Road Organisation played a supportive role in the evacuation of fifteen Afghanistan girls who were being chased by the Taliban, after the allied forces departed the country in 2021. Rosanna spoke of her organisation’s role in raising awareness of the girls’ struggles and introduced her colleague Julia West to the stage. Julia spoke of the support that Barker College has given to one of the Afghanistan girls and she also explained the Humanitarian Support Program that she has established for after-school tutoring at the College.

Our club had the opportunity to celebrate the support that it was able to provide to one of the Afghanistan girls via an educational scholarship in 2022. In addition, the club excitedly announced the formation of a SI School Club in 2023 at Barker College, that will support Julia’s Humanitarian Support Program.

The morning was a great success. People left well fed, more informed and many with impressive raffle prizes.