ONE
Freedom after 7 years of struggle…we have a permanent visa for a stateless Palestinian after he spent 6 and a half years in detention! When the ASRC got involved he was facing indefinite detention, we won his case, got him out of detention onto a TPV and then successfully argued for it to be shortened and then won him a permanent visa.  The look of joy and disbelief on his face when he saw this letter was priceless.
TWO
Taking a stand on Kevin Andrews….the ASRC is taking a stand on the comments of Kevin Andrews in racially villifying the African community.  We have something significant planned and i will unveil it in the next few days!
THREE
Opening our doors to the community…On October 16th it’s World Food Day and we are opening our doors at the ASRC to the general community to come and visit our foodbank and see first hand the issues of poverty and destitution and see how they affect asylum seekers. Its on from 2pm to 4pm at the ASRC 12 Batman Street, West Melbourne.
FOUR
Getting men into the kitchen…we are starting next week a cooking course for single asylum seeker men at our catering kitchen in Fitzroy, it’s the start of a lifeskills program we are implementing to help building the capacity of asylum seekers to have more independence and control of their lives.
FIVE
Building employment pathways through First Aid…we are running next week a free training course in First Aid for asylum seekers which will be a great asset in making them more employable.
SIX
Raising global awareness about our work….papers that Sophie our employment co – ordinator and Pam our campaign co – ordinator presented at a conference in Amsterdam earlier this year have been accepted into the prestigous International Journal of Diversity.
SEVEN
Highlighing poverty for asylum seekers in Australia… .it’s Anti – Poverty week next week and the ASRC will be highlighting the poverty that asylum seekers faced, there will be a story in the Melbourne Times about our foodbank and how it is deeply connected the destitution that asylum seekers face.
EIGHT
Making small business happen….our 10 week small business training course for asylum seekers is up and running and we will be teaching asylum seekers how to start up their own small business and create their own business plan, very exciting!
NINE
Going to the High Court to stop torture…the ASRC lodged a High Court appeal to stop the deportation of a Chinese asylum seeker who faced torture if returned to their country. We have made 2 separate applications, one on the issue of the Minister misuing his power to cancel our clients BV (haneef style case) and secondly that the Department of Immigration deliberately witheld vital evidence from the Refugee Review Tribunal that denied our client a fair hearing and natural justice.
TEN
High Tea a great sucess for our health program …the High Tea for the Girls on Saturday was a tremendous success with over $5000 raised for the ASRC Health Program.