FARREP Community Worker
Medina Idriess

I have been the MCWH FARREP Community Worker since 1998. FARREP is the Victorian program supporting communities affected by practices such as FGM. My role involves health education, providing access to services, making appropriate referrals and also engaging in advocacy and cultural support work.

Empowering women to make informed decisions about their health and wellbeing has always been my aspiration. In my homeland of Eritrea I was a teacher but I often found myself in both leadership and support roles supporting my community.

In Australia I retrained, completing a Graduate Diploma in Social Science from Victoria University. I now have ten years experience in community development. My focus is supporting newly-arrived women from FGM-affected communities deal with a myriad of health issues and issues relating living in Australia. I am also a MCWH bilingual Health Educator (Arabic, Tigre and Tigrigna) and work as a FARREP community worker at the Royal Women’s Hospital Melbourne.