SAMAA CELEBRATED JAHSNE BUZURG AT NOVOTEL, NORWEST

Jun 30, 2014 by admin

South Asian Muslim Association of Australia (SAMAA) celebrated the annual event ofJashne Buzurg at Novotel Hotel in Baulkham Hills on Saturday 10 May 2014. Well over 200 people including several dignitaries, health experts, community leaders and a large number of SAMAA elders packed the hall to its capacity and enjoyed the evening with enthusiasm and joy. The longest serving and very famous parliamentarian Hon Philip Ruddock attended the event along with several other federal and state MPs. These included Hon Julie Owens, federal MP for Parramatta, Hon Ed Husic, the first Muslim MP in federal parliament, Hon David Elliot state MP for Baulkham Hills representing Hon Victor Dominello, NSW Minister for Communities and the first South Asian Muslim NSW MLC Dr Mehreen Faruqi. The Consul General of Pakistan Mr Abdul Aziz Uqaili and several community leaders also attended the event.

MC Sabah Hussain introduced dignitaries and conducted the show with professionalism. She applauded efforts of SAMAA volunteers. Introducing Hon Philip Ruddock, she reminded audience how Mr Ruddock had crossed the floor to support a bill to Parliament to ensure that immigration did not discriminate on the basis of race.

Dr Mohamud Sheikh presented an informative talk about the risks of various types of flues amongst elders in coming months of Southern hemisphere winter. Dr Sheikh is a published international public health expert, with over 18 years of experience in infectious and communicable diseases control and currently works at the University of New South Wale’s centre for research excellence, at the school of public health and community medicine. He described the symptoms, risks and precautionary measures for elders to keep healthy during upcoming winter.

Hon Philip Ruddock delivered an inspiring talk which received repeated applause from the audience. He applauded Australian multicultural character which has allowed communities from so many faiths, races, colors and cultures to live together happily. He paid tribute to the leadership of SAMAA and was pleased to see it providing services to the community elders. He acknowledged the need of elders care to be religiously and culturally sensitive. He assured SAMAA that as the needs of South Asian Muslim community grows, government funding for organisations such as SAMAA will be forthcoming.

Mr David Elliot applauded SAMAA and appreciated the services such faith based organisations provides. He applauded South Asian Muslim community for its achievements in higher education and for its desire to assimilate in wider Australian community.

Dr Mehreen Faruqi expressed her appreciation of SAMAA’s services to the elders. She said that she was very proud to be a South Asian of Pakistani origin and that she values the cultural traditions this community maintains. She congratulated the elders, members and volunteers of SAMAA in Urdu “Jashne Buzurg Mubarak”.

Couple of days later, Dr Mehreen Faruqi also moved a motion in NSW Parliament which the house agreed to, congratulating SAMAA on its great work. http://www.mehreenfaruqi.org.au/motion-south-asian-muslim-association/

Hon Julie Owens spoke about her interest in Indian music since her youth days and offered to help SAMAA in all its endeavours.

Mr Phillip Ruddock presented annual awards to five SAMAA volunteers for their services to the elders and contribution to SAMAA activities. These included Mrs Naila Hassan, Miss Rubinah Ahmad, Mrs Sobia Ajaz, Mr Abu Bakar Sadazoi and Mr Mohammad Fayyaz. The awardees were introduced by Ayesha Ahmad as the volunteers received applause for their effort.

The audience enjoyed the talks of all dignitaries with much interest.

Mr Zahid Jamil welcomed the audience on behalf of South Asian Muslim Association of Australia and presented SAMAA report to the audience. Some experts from this report are given below:

“SAMAA has been continuing its programmes of serving the elders of the community. Our volunteers have been providing various services to the community elders such as cooking food for them, general home help and taking them to doctors, mosques and social events etc.”

“SAMAA has been coordinating with various service providers to extend available services to our elders. Under one such programme, CareConnect, a major service provider, with whom we have been coordinating for nearly 4 years, are currently registering SAMAA elders in western Sydney for some of their programmes. These services include HACC funded programmes such as Social Support, Respite service, Community Aged Care and Extended aged care. We coordinate with such service providers in making the services culturally and religiously appropriate as much as possible.”

“Through its quarterly newsletters, SAMAA keeps disseminating information about all the news from aged care industry including various government initiatives and various SAMAA programmes.”

“While SAMAA’s agreement with Wallgrove aged care facility in Lakemba is still in place, we have been speaking to other groups as well to consider offering culturally appropriate care to SAMAA elders in their nursing homes and sign a memorandum of understanding with us. Unfortunately we have been encountering some resistance from them and there seems to be an element of bias in it, however we will continue to pursue such efforts.”

“SAMAA also cooperate with all people of good will. We have sought cooperation from our community Doctors and many of them have come forward to offer their services to enhance human dignity of our elders.”

“SAMAA has been and will continue to knock various doors. We will continue to seek support from those who are in charge and who can help. We will continue to seek grants however difficult it may be….. South Asian Muslim community may not be very vocal, we are also very spread out, we may not be politically strong but we have been quietly contributing to the progress of this nation … in our professional jobs, in our businesses, we have been paying taxes and we deserve a well earned old age of prestige and dignity. We are seeking what we deserve.”

Mr Zahid Jamil requested Federal and State MPs to provide support in pursuing SAMAA’s cause.
He also sought support from the South Asian Muslim community so as to work towards better future of our elders. He also warned the community members that we will have to support ourselves increasingly in future as the governments will not be able to provide what they may be providing today. He said “The budget to be announced in couple of days is expected to contain huge spending cuts in many vital sectors including aged care. We may like it or not, the support system of the government will gradually only reduce in future…the argument is that we can not afford to live beyond our means as a nation, if we do we will end up in financial problems like many European nations….it may very well be true. So let us face the reality and be prepared for it. Let us try to become as self reliant individually and as a community.”

“The cuts in budgets will effect several aged care programmes and thus role of voluntary organisations such as SAMAA will become even more significant. We will therefore need more support from the community to reach out to our elders.”

Talking about building our own facilities, he said “When it comes to building of aged care facilities, we need huge amounts from the community and from the government….it will happen one day inshallah and we are exploring all different avenues.”

He reminded members that donations to SAMAA are tax deductible.

People bought mugs with SAMAA logo to raise funds for the volunteering programme. The mugs were donated by Mr Mushtaq Ali of M&N Printing, Ingleburn.

A highly accomplished Ghazal singer Dr Pradeep Bal accompanied by tabla player Abhijeet thrilled the audience with some very famous Ghazals of Mehdi Hassan and other famous Ghazal icons.

The audience enjoyed the South Asian cuisine. The evening also provided elders an opportunity to meet each other and other community members.

A team of dedicated SAMAA volunteers under supervision of Mrs Mona Zahid, Syed Afzal Hussain, Mrs Ayesha Ahmad and Mrs Shaheen Firdos worked tirelessly to ensure that all elders and guests felt comfortable and the programme ran in an orderly manner. Dr Ahad Khan, Mrs Kaneez Fatimah Ali and Mr Zahid Jamil received dignitaries and ensured their comfort. At SAMAA we wish to specially acknowledge very fine efforts of Mrs Asima Baig Khan, Mrs Shaheen Aleemullah, Mr Mohamad Aleemullah, Mrs Robina Yasmin, Mrs Aamina Un Nabi & Mrs Hasna Shahid and many of our youth volunteers including Sharjeel Aleemullah, Aliya Hussein, Ali Ahmad, Aminah Ahmad, Simmi Zahid, Abu-Bakkar Sadozai, Yusuf Ahmad, Ali Ahmad, Fahmeed Kazi, Sarah Syed, Tabish Aleemullah and others. We also thank the management of Novotel, Norwest for their very kind cooperation, in particular Mr Shahzad Khan.

We thank the South Asian Muslim community for turning out in big numbers to attend the above event.