Keeping busy

Health Education Program (HEP)

MCWH Multilingual Health Education Programs have been delivering important health information to women from immigrant and refugee backgrounds since 1978. Programs are conducted in industry and community settings by highly trained and qualified Bilingual Health Educators, from an immigrant or refugee background. These programs are uniquely successful because health information is provided in:

  • the preferred language of the women attending the program;
  • location and at times that are most convenient for women; and
  • ways which respect women’s experiences and knowledge and understand their cultural context.

This woman-to-woman approach is our peer education model, and is based on the belief that sharing health information and experiences is the best way to increase women’s health knowledge and wellbeing.

A highlight  this year has been working with Nestle to bring health education into places of work, and with AMES Australia and Melbourne Polytechnic to conduct sessions in places where women learn. Find out more about our Health Education Programs.

Grant updates

We are so pleased to announce that we have recently been successful in our funding application to the Victorian Government to deliver a violence prevention project in partnership with Southern Cross Care Victoria. We look forward to commencing the project on July 1st, 2017.

Board news

We warmly welcome two new board members: Catherine Ross and Tamara Kwarteng. Catherine comes from a philanthropic background and is passionate about grassroots community and generosity. A fundraiser for over 15 years, she studied International Politics and Development at the University of Melbourne (2012) and is now proudly Fundraising Manager for The Reach Foundation. Joining the MCWH Board in May 2017, Catherine is focused on sustainability and creating awareness for the valuable programs and community created for women by women.

Tamara comes to MCWH with an extensive background in public health, having had experience overseeing and leading numerous HIV & AIDS programs in Australia, Asia, the Pacific and Africa. Since January 2010, Dr Kwarteng has been an independent consultant providing technical advice in public health program design, monitoring, and evaluation.We warmly welcome her experience in organisational capacity-building, applied research, policy analysis and development, and training and education programs.