It’s on again – a wonderful donation has secured the future of our hugely popular Refugee Youth Camp in 2019.

MCCA Islamic Finance and Investments and Bendigo and Adelaide Bank have donated $5000 to ensure the camp goes ahead next year.

The donation is part of their annual profit towards community programs.

MCCA representatives Ibrahim Hassan and Mohammad Najjar travelled from Melbourne to present us with the donation.

Safar and Lwe Pree who attended our Refugee Youth Camp this year both talked about their experiences at the camp and their personal journeys to Bendigo.

We thank Ibrahim and Mohammad for spending so much time learning about the Refugee Youth Camp and the other services we provide for refugees making a home in Bendigo.

Their questions and interest in how we are supporting multicultural communities was much appreciated.

Thanks must also go to Ben Rix from the Portfolio Funding section of the Bendigo and Adelaide Bank who visited our Central site in Hargreaves Street and was very interested in learning what we were doing in the multicultural space.

This year’s Refugee Youth Camp saw more than 40 young people from the Afghan, Karen and South Sudenese communities in Bendigo enjoy three days at Camp Curumbene at Corop.

Lifestyle, healthy choices, cybersafety, mental health and wellbeing were some of the topics covered at the camp along with fun activities such as canoeing, rock climbing, giant chess and a rope course.

Victoria Police Sergreant Craig Gaffe paid a visit to talk about the role police play in the Bendigo community.

One of the great things about this year's camp is that planning was helped out by young people who attended our very first two-day Refugee Youth Leadership Program run with the help of the Centre for Multicultural Youth earlier in the year.

We thank MCCA for their generosity and giving us peace of mind that we can get on and organise the camp for next year!

Learn more about how BCHS supports refugees at www.bchs.com.au