Who we are

Multicultural Centre for Women's Health (MCWH) is a women's health organisation which is committed to improving the health of immigrant and refugee women around Australia.

MCWH is for all women from immigrant communities, including refugee and asylum seekers and women from both emerging and established communities.

We provide national leadership and excellence in multilingual health education, advocacy, training, and research with specific expertise in sexual, reproductive, occupational, and mental health.

Services for Immigrant Women by Immigrant Women

At the Multicultural Centre for Women’s Health, we, like you, come from many diverse countries, cultures and backgrounds so we understand the issues immigrant and refugee women face when taking control of our own health. We believe women sharing health information and experiences is the best way to wellbeing — it’s what we call the woman-to-woman approach, and is the basis of our health promotion activities, MCWH bilingual Health Educators are specially trained to provide what immigrant and refugee women want: high quality multilingual health education and information in a multicultural context.

Services for those interested in Immigrant and Refugee Women’s Wellbeing

Health professionals, community workers, students, employers, unions, the general public, can all find access points to immigrant and refugee women’s wellbeing through the Multicultural Centre for Women’s Health.

• Industry Visits Program: health education sessions in the workplace.
• Community Workshop Program: health education sessions in community spaces.
• Family and Reproductive Rights Education Program: addresses sexual and reproductive health issues in communities affected by FGM.
• Multilingual Library and Resource Collections: over 12,000 items and almost 70 languages.
• Professional Training: cross-cultural and other specific training for employers, community workers, and health professionals—customised to your needs. MCWH specialises in intensive training programs for bilingual community workers.
• Access to bilingual Health Education and Assistance: MCWH bilingual Health Educators are specially trained to provide what immigrant and refugee women want: high quality multilingual health education and information in a multicultural context. Our Educators provide health education, information and referral in a culturally and linguistically sensitive manner and respond to health and wellbeing needs of immigrant and refugee women as nominated by women themselves.
• Consultation: MCWH is Australia’s only national organisation committed to immigrant and refugee women’s health, drawing on 30 years of experience and expertise, we provide telephone or face to face consultations to community workers, employers, and health professionals, who may have specific questions about working with immigrant women from non-English speaking backgrounds.
• Advocacy: we put the health and wellbeing of immigrant and refugee women first and our work includes lobbying key stakeholders on issues affecting immigrant and refugee women.
• Research: our work includes projects which involve research into issues that affect the health and wellbeing of immigrant and refugee women.
• Capacity building: we provide immigrant and refuge women and those interested in their health and wellbeing with a myriad of access points to build capacity in relation to immigrant and refugee women, and their health and wellbeing.

What we do: Statement of Purpose

MCWH’s vision is better health and wellbeing for immigrant and refugee women. In support of this goal our Statement of Purpose outlines the activites we engage in, they are:

• to collect, distribute & exchange information on women's health & wellbeing across Victoria, particularly immigrant and refugee working women;
• to provide information & knowledge that will restore to immigrant and refugee women control over their own bodies & the power to make informed choices;
• to work toward the expansion of access for immigrant and refugee women to information & services sensitive to their particular needs;
• to encourage & provide community development & community education activities that will assist & promote the general health & wellbeing of immigrant and refugee women;
• to raise the awareness of governments, health organisations, ethno-specific organisations, the labour movement, & the general community about immigrant and refugee women's health needs & the work of the Service & to work with these organisations & other organisations to achieve the purposes of the Service;
• to actively involve immigrant and refugee women in the management & development of the Service;
• to facilitate & participate in campaigns on issues affecting the health & wellbeing of immigrant and refugee women;
• to investigate, sponsor &, where necessary, administer research, promotional activities, & programs & services to promote the above purposes.

Our Values: MCWH’s philosophy

• Immigrant and refugee women have the right to self-determination in relation to their own health and wellbeing.
• Social determinants, including gender, race, culture, class, employment status, sexuality, disability, immigrant status, nationalism, and population control, impact on women's health and wellbeing.
• The nature and status of women's work, whether paid or unpaid, impacts on their health and wellbeing.

• Women’s Empowerment
• Cultural and Linguistic Appropriateness
• Accuracy of Health Information
• Access and Equity
• Confidentiality
• Collaboration
• Continuous Improvement

Quality Standards Booklet  (1Mb)

The name MCWH: signposting major developments in our organisation’s story

Multicultural Centre for Women’s Health (MCWH) has gone through many name changes during its 30-year history, each one a major sign post in its development.

In 1978 MCWH began as Action for Family Planning (AFP) a migrant women’s organisation which grew from the realisation and activism of the late 1970s that acknowledged that in order for family planning education and information to reach migrant women, it had to be taken from the clinical context and into the community. By the early 1980s, 1982 to be exact, AFP became Women in Industry Contraception and Health (WICH), and then in the early 1990s, this changed to the broader Women in Industry and Community Health (WICH). Both these names, with their unique acronym, reflected the organisation’s steady movement beyond family planning toward a feminist perspective and a wider women’s health focus. At the end of the 1990s WICH became Working Women’s Health (WWH) which recognised immigrant and refugee women’s work, both paid and unpaid, and the vital contribution this work makes to both women’s communities and wider Australian society.

Thirty years later, AFP has evolved into the Multicultural Centre for Women’s Health (MCWH), an organisation rich in history, action, and meaning for immigrant and refugee women’s health.

A brief timeline of MCWH