What now for asylum seekers?

Wednesday 7 August 2013 at 7:30pm

At the Study Centre, Yarra Theological Union
34 Bedford Street, Box Hill (best entry via 34 Bedford Street)

Tea/coffee and snacks provided afterwards. Your donations welcome.
For the flyer for this event, click flyer-coleman-aug13

Caz Coleman

The crisis with asylum seekers: realism versus humane concern

Caz Coleman will review efforts by church and community groups to improve outcomes for refugees and asylum seekers in Australia, while recognising the difficult political constraints.
Caz recently returned from a posting in Nauru as Contract Manager for the Salvation Army support services. She previously worked as the Director of the Hotham Mission Asylum Seeker Project, with the Uniting Church Justice and International Mission Unit and in the Refugee program of the National Council of Churches in Australia. Caz has published a number of articles, and co-authored research on the benefits of community-based alternatives to long-term detention. She has a background in migration law, and a long history of advocacy for improving asylum health and welfare in Australia.

Misha Coleman

Making a difference: what YOU can do

Misha Coleman will speak on how local church and community groups can help shape humane policies, including by questioning candidates for the forthcoming federal government elections, and helping to bust the myths perpetrated in this debate, within congregations and with parishioners. She will identify successes so far and challenges everyone can help overcome.
Misha Coleman is Executive Officer of the Australian Churches Refugee Taskforce, an initiative supported by the National Council of Churches in Australia and modelled on the Inter-Church Gambling Taskforce.
Misha has extensive working experience in the regions from which people flee as asylum seekers and refugees, including Palestine, Ethiopia, Kenya, Vietnam, Burma, and Cambodia. She was formerly CEO of Anglican Overseas Aid, and also worked for the Australian Government’s aid agency AusAID, at the Australian Embassy in Hanoi, and has led Asian Development Bank and US Government aid projects. She has a Masters degree in Environmental Law, and post-graduate qualifications in development studies, monitoring, and evaluation. Formerly, as a Registered Nurse and Midwife, Misha worked in black townships in South Africa during apartheid, and in several Australian indigenous communities throughout the 1990s.
In 2000, she was awarded the Australian Service Medal by the Australian Government for active duty in the Multinational Peacekeeping Mission to Bougainville. In 2007, she was awarded two medals by the Government of Vietnam for services to agricultural and fisheries development in Vietnam. She is also currently an elected Councillor in the City of Yarra, and is no shrinking violet.