Melbourne lunar festivals

Hundreds of people visited our stands at the Lunar New Year Festivals held in Richmond and Springvale in January. The Richmond event was supported by the Vietnamese Women’s Association Inc and Yarra City Council.

Hepatitis Victoria/LiverWELL staff and volunteers raised awareness about viral hepatitis and liver health with fun activities, games, face painting and advice.

“We engaged with more than 350 people at the Springvale Festival. Many of whom asked questions about treatment and prevention of hepatitis B and C,” said Hepatitis B Community Mobilisation Project Officer, Aliasgar Khaki. The Springvale Festival provides an excellent opportunity. There are about 14,880 people living with Chronic Hepatitis B and 11,868 living with Chronic Hepatitis C in Melbourne’s South East and therefore this was an ideal event to raise awareness for viral hepatitis and promote better liver health.

“Our spinning wheel activity was once again the highlight and engaged children and their parents in learning more about liver health,” he said.

We also presented our Volunteer of the Month award for January at the Springvale Festival, which went to Jomy Jose who has worked on various projects within the organisation and attended the stall at previous events.

“Jomy is an excellent volunteer, it is great to have him recognised for his efforts,” Aliasgar said.

Frank Carlus, Hepatitis Victoria/LiverWELL President and staff at the Luna New Year Festival.