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23 MARCH, 2022
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Celebrating diversity
Sacred Heart Primary School students Ava, Ava, Angelina, Olive, Lenny, Sadie and Batoul dressed up for Harmony Day.
Sacred Heart Primary School in Newport celebrated diversity and inclusion this week as a part of Harmony Day. On Monday 21, pupils featured in a parade dressed in traditional clothing or flag colours, and watched a traditional Chinese dragon performance as part of the national celebration of Harmony Week, which runs until Sunday 27. Teacher and learning leader Cathy Palmer said there has been a big focus on community at the school this term, and that Harmony Week was a great way to celebrate diversity and the different cultures that exist within their school community. “We have so much to share with each other within our school and Newport,” she said. “We celebrate it each year and normally each previous year was celebrated with a big multicultural lunch, but you know, COVID put a bit of a stop to that. “So we’re sort of amping it up, I suppose, with some really big treats such as incursions and performances and … just celebrating, being together after a rocky two years.” Molly Magennis
Social housing support By Molly Magennis Seaholme single mother Kate De Marco is throwing her support behind a Hobsons Bay council plan for a social housing project in Laverton. As reported by Star Weekly, the council is advocating for state government funding for a housing project in Epsom Street in a bid to help low-to-moderate income earners to stay in the municipality. The proposed development would be a mix of quality low to medium rise dwellings, with a maximum of four storeys, with occupants
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subject to rent capped at a proportion of their earnings, usually 25-30 per cent. Ms De Marco, who was named Hobsons Bay’s 2022 Citizen of the Year for her work establishing a community pantry during the pandemic, said the Laverton project could be the first step in addressing the municipality’s affordable housing issues. “I think the Laverton project is one of what should be many in our community,” she said. “Why can’t Hobsons Bay be a leader? “Why can’t local communities run by local councils be the people that create that change?” Having been a social worker for 20 years, Ms
De Marco is all too familiar with the stresses that many vulnerable community members face every day. She also has firsthand experience of rental stress. Ms De Marco, who describes herself as someone on a low to moderate income, is no stranger to the rental process, having rented 47 properties since she was 18 years old. She said renting wasn’t much of a problem until she became a single parent about nine years ago. After struggling to find a suitable rental for her and her son, Ms De Marco moved into a property in Seaholme in 2017.
Despite the property not being suitable in terms of size and affordability, it was the only option she had at the time. “I found something that was way too big for us, but there was nothing else that was suitable,” she said. “I asked for a seven year lease, now I know they don’t do seven year leases, but I was like we want to stay for seven years because my child’s at school, I don’t want to move him….I need to build a sense of community and neighbourhood around our family.” ■
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