08 March 2018

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MFO's commitment to motivate the community and guide the process of Leaders for Change continued at our second Leaders Dinner with 350 people attending from 80 different nationalities. The night was full of inspirational speakers and cultural performer and concluded with all participants signing a pledge to be a Leader of Positive Change within in the community.  

This was a long awaited special dinner event, organised by MFO in partnership with the Office of the Commonwealth Games, supported by the Police and the Network. It was a celebration of the multicultural participation in the Commonwealth Games and the launch of MFO’s Leaders of Positive Change, aiming to motivate the whole community to take a stand against all kinds of violence and become a powerful force of positive change. We had invited 170 guests as representatives for the Commonwealth Games, the Police, the Network and our different communities. It was a fantastic evening with interesting speeches emphasising the importance of Leaders of Positive Change, great performances and delicious food. Thanks to you all for making the evening such a great event!

23 November 2017

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The third Meeting Place was about coming together to share Food and Thoughts. We all met in one of the Uniting Church’s venue next to the MFO’s office in Southport. The tables were set, and the tasty lunch food was prepared by the Hungarian, Syrian and Eritrean communities.    

21 October 2017

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This years Walk Together was a success bringing together countless organisations and hundreds of people to celebrate our cultural diversity and promote tolerance and acceptance of all people regardless of race, background or religion.

8 March 2017

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The yearly International Women’s Day is a time to celebrate and support women’s achievements. It is also a day to create and initiate new processes that will encourage further positive development. This year MFO organised a conference, Women - The Leaders for Positive Change, at TAFE in Southport. The agenda for the day was to discuss ways of influencing a non-acceptance attitude towards violence and discrimination, and form groups focusing on working to activate the community and inform about possible strategies to use. As this is a subject of great interest and importance for so many, the conference was very well attended with about 250 women, from all different walks of life, participating in this highly valued conference day. The event was covered by the media in an informative article, and this resulted in persons from the public telling about their own experiences and so brought even more focus to the issue.

12 May 2017

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We decided to celebrate the mothers of our cultural diverse clients to acknowledge the important role they play in their families. They bring caring, stability and continuity to the life of their families even in unsettling times, although sometimes the importance of their position is no fully acknowledge or realised. Event was organised at the Broadwater Parklands, and many of the families brought a traditional plates of food to share with others and the day was very much appreciated by everyone.

4 November 2017

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It was held  at the Labrador Community Hub. It was a day with music, craft and magic. The magician blew us all away with his unexpected and wonderful tricks, and he became even more popular when he taught some of his card tricks to the children. So we may soon have our own multicultural magicians!

There was music performances and sing-alongs, and as the music and rhythms were irresistible we were soon all involved in spontaneous singing and dancing. We had brought along many different instruments and the children were all eager to try them out, creating their own whimsical songs. 

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We shared the lunch food and there was a special treat waiting for everyone. The -schools’ names- had baked beautiful and colourful cupcakes and cookies to us and they were delicious! 

27 September 2017

We held the first Meeting Place in the Broadwater Parkland. Warm and overcast weather made it a perfect day for sport and fun activities. The turnout was great, and we were about 100 people from all different communities and of all ages having a fun day out together.

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The day held a very special moment for twenty young children, because of Maya Pearse and Sarah Hamett. Maya and Sarah are friends and both 10 years old. They study at the Somerset College, and as part of a school project they decided to bake cupcakes and raise money to create twenty Welcome- to-Australia-bags for children about their age. Today was the day to give them away, and Maya was there to do the job.

Harmony Day is a celebration of our cultural diversity, and show of cultural respect and appreciation for everyone. This yearly event is organised by MFO and MCCGC and other stakeholders- members of the Multicultural Network Gold Coast, and was again held at the Southport Library as well as multicultural tour/performances all over the Gold Coast. The day was filled with music and dance performances, food tasting and insightful short speeches. Just like last year the event was well attended with over 4000 people participating on different locations during the day.

3 June 2017

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MFO had a great and colourful stand displaying artefacts from all different cultures. The story of the struggle and strife, that so many refugees have had to endure, was told in real life pictures, and all too many of our clients had similar stories to tell. The MFO team took the opportunity to engage with the festival visitors to inform about the organisations different services and promote inclusion and acceptance of diversity. Visitors were invited to an Eritrean coffee ceremony, and they could choose to get their hair braided or their hands henna painted with elaborate and beautiful patterns. Federal Minister Steven Ciobo visited MFO displays and was very impressed with the work MFO does in the Gold Coast region with the migrants and refugees.