Australia Day celebrations as far away as Jordan
03 February 2011
AVI volunteers working at the United Nations Relief and Works
Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) in Jordan put on a lively
Australia Day morning tea for around 100 curious local staff in the
Jordan Field Office on 26 January 2011.
AVI volunteers are renowned for their inter-cultural prowess -
respect for different cultures and an ability to adapt to different
cultures - but sometimes being away from home is challenging.
Celebrating Australia Day each January with fellow volunteers
and sharing it with new-found friends in different countries is an
opportunity for cultural exchange, as a bunch of AVI volunteers in
the Middle East recently found.
AVI volunteers Mark Pringle, Tom Holyoake, and Peta and Jeff
Fitzgibbon, with great help from Kirstin Lange and Alex Shoebridge
of nearby UNRWA Headquarters, plied their colleagues at UNRWA
Jordan with real-deal Australian 'tucker' this Australia Day.
On the menu were Vegemite sandwiches (voted pretty ghastly),
party pies (the biggest hit), fairy bread and jelly (in Socceroo
colours of gold and green - to mark the recent 6-0 win against
Uzbekistan), cheesecakes (Pavlovas were deemed a dish too far),
Anzac biscuits and even scones with jam and cream. Regrettably
there were no Lamingtons as sponge materials and rectangular cake
tins just can't be found in the capital city, Amman.
It was fun event with the PA sound bouncing off concrete walls and
the happy crowd cheerfully ignoring requests to keep it quiet for
the quiz - how many sheep in Australia? What's the capital city?
Who's this a picture of?
It was a great moment for inter-cultural relations, and feedback
was terrific, as the quote below illustrates:
'Please allow me to thank you for the lovely tea morning. I
searched the web to get information about Australia and I was glad
to know some information about it rather than just snakes , koala
and kangaroo … [The volunteers'] welcoming was great … the food was
"zaki" [delicious] … and the whole atmosphere was
excellent!' - Rana, UNRWA's HR department.
AVI in the Middle East
AVI's program in the Middle East increases the capability of
displaced and disadvantaged communities to participate in their own
development, and reduce poverty while promoting sustainable
livelihoods, improved health and educational outcomes, a strong
civil society, and peace-building initiatives.
AVI started a Middle East program in 1995 and in 2008, AVI
expanded its work in the region to support broader displaced and
disadvantaged communities while retaining the original focus on
Palestinian refugees.
In the past three years, AVI has managed 28 new volunteers who
have worked with host communities in areas as broad as disability,
protection, youth work, education, organisational development and
human rights.
Read more about
AVI's work in Jordan