Orange Refugee Week 2008

It was my pleasure to offer a Civic welcome to all the people who attended the celebration of Refugee week here in Orange. The Theme was "a place to call home".
Whilst Refugee week celebrations have been held in the past this is the third consecutive year for Refugee celebrations at the Orange City Council complex. Here at Council we are very proud to be involved with this most important day, particularly as Refugee Day and Refugee Week are now combined at this time in June.
A refugee is someone who is outside their own country and who cannot return due to a well-founded fear of persecution. This may be because of their race, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.
Australia is privileged to take in over 13,000 refugees every year. The countries of origin for these refugees varies, and is determined by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR). The numbers have dramatically increased in the past few years, unfortunately, mostly due to civil unrest.
Currently the UNHCR helps over 32.9 million refugees and other uprooted civilians in similar circumstances in countries around the world. This has included significant increases in refugees from Uganda. Democratic Republic of Congo and Iraq. The focus of refugees coming to Australia has altered somewhat in the past two years from a primary focus on Africa to one where middle eastern refugees are seeking and being accepted for refuge.
With a changing diversity in Orange we are thrilled to have residents from over fifty different language groups. This includes refugees who have chosen to make Orange their home, from at least five different countries. A recent change in population has been the secondary migration of refugee families and some of the newest Australian Citizens from Sydney of the Sudanese culture. We now also have over four language groups of Sudanese in Orange, and I was pleased to see so many of this community at the event.
I saw a lot of familiar faces from within our community and from the previous years event and I enjoyed the opportunity of meeting our local residents again. We were spoilt with food made by the multi cultural people who attended this event and what an array of different foods there was to choose from.
The Burralgang Aboriginal Dance group performed with the Glenroi Heights Public School and the Better Pathways Program to offer a Welcome Dance. The Australian Red Cross gave a presentation on the Refugee experience and there were the speakers who shared a story of their experience as refugee's now living in Orange.