Since commencing work at MCWH in 2009, I have been responsible for various projects including bilingual diabetes prevention education; the development of an immigrant and refugee women's leadership program; and the delivery of bilingual alcohol education to at-risk communities.

As a child of Filipino parents who migrated to Australia in the early 1970's and raised in the westerns suburbs of Melbourne, I have always been curious about issues relating to our personal history, memory and identity. While a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) and my PhD studies allowed me to explore further the social, cultural and political angles of race and identity in art and literature, my work at MCWH has helped to consolidate and broaden my thinking in these areas.

The women I have met and the stories they have shared with me during the course of my work have made me even more aware of the urgency and value of the work MCWH conducts.

How might my mother, as a newly arrived migrant in a country with no family or friends, have benefitted from the projects we deliver? What opportunities have been afforded to other immigrant and refugee women as a consequence of the contingencies of birth and circumstance? What might my own daughters dare to achieve in spite of the challenges they will encounter? These questions remain at the core of my project work and advocacy activities; fortunately for me, MCWH has been actively committed to answering such questions for over thirty years. My learning continues.