Newsletters

I thank CARAD for the opportunity to work with this young boy and his family, it has been life-changing for me. We’ve developed a great relationship and even had each other over for dinner at each other’s houses! I will forever be grateful for the positive experience I have had and what it taught me.

My experience with CARAD has been more than I could have hoped for - I have met some amazing people as clients, other volunteers and the people involved with running CARAD. This is an organisation that quietly goes about its business without attracting attention or making a fuss, but providing an essential service and helping people in difficult circumstances.

We are happy in these days but happy days weren’t with us when we weren’t with CARAD. It was a time when we had nothing; we couldn’t even buy enough food to survive. I was renting an apartment but it was really difficult to pay rent because my pay wasn’t enough to cover everything. We had to leave our home in Maylands and moved in a farm 230 Km south of Perth. No power, no gas and no warmth in cruel winter nights. We collected woods to cook food. Nights were long but days were longer. I tried to contact all those people I knew but nothing was going to happen. But one day one of my contacts gave me CARAD number it was like an oasis in desert or a fire in frosty weather. We moved in to the CARAD house in (suburb). CARAD not only gave us accommodation but also all the things we needed. They helped us to find another house in a nice place. It’s never been possible but CARAD made it easy. CARAD transformed our melancholy into joys and ecstasies. The members of CARAD always been with us, they gave us much time, took us to all over the city, and guided us to start a good life in Australia. They felt sadness in our sorrows and celebrated our happiness more than we did. Booked doctors’ appointments and drove us there all the time. They opened umbrella for us in the rain. This article is not a novel, that’s why I can’t add all those good things or to be honest I can’t shape my all feelings and thoughts into words because CARAD is providing services those are way above from common peoples thinking. I wish I wish …….. I wish I could do just a tiny bit of all those contributions and hard works that members of CARAD are doing tirelessly.

The feedback I have had from all the volunteers working with our children is they get just as much from the program as the students they are helping. Although boundaries are maintained, volunteers become so accepted into the family and the families look forward to them coming. Families do sometimes ask for assistance from the volunteer on other matters as they develop a trust and confidence with them. This can also be very helpful to the school as the volunteer can liaise between school and family. Parents are so grateful for the assistance and help. The students eagerly report back to me about what they’ve been doing with their volunteer and respond to the individual attention. We also had another student who was frequently in trouble at school, however coincidentally his behaviour began to change once he had a volunteer giving him some personal attention and time. It was rather amazing seeing the change in this particular student, his attitude towards school work and his behaviour completely changed. In fact, this student won the class award last year and I personally believe his volunteer had played a big part in his achievements. From the schools point of view, we are so grateful for CARAD’s involvement. Our students are in great need and they respond so well to some individual time.