ISHAR Multicultural Women’s Health Centre chief executive Andrea Creado says it is “incredible” the centre has survived 25 years given the lack of State and Federal Government funding.
The centre officially opened on August 10, 1992, in Mirrabooka and will be celebrating its 25th anniversary at Fraser’s Restaurant on September 6.
The non-government organisation provides health, wellbeing and support services to women of all ages and from all cultural backgrounds.
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READ NOWMs Creado, who has worked at Ishar for 15 years, said the centre aimed to continue being “relevant” in the refugee and migrant community.
“One of the big aspects of the work at Ishar is that there have been hundreds of women who have been positively impacted by our services,” she said.
“Thinking about what we are going to do for the next 25 years is a bit ambitious because the world is changing very rapidly but I can say that at least for the next 10 years we will still be providing services to the women.
“We have to see what changes politically and socially.”
Ms Creado said the centre was reapplying for funding from the Department of Health for its core services, which included domestic violence and lifestyle support and parenting, English and medical services.
“The last couple of years have been stable but we have not been getting any growth in income,” she said.
“We are still running all of our programs to full capacity.”
She said most of their services had a waiting list of four to six weeks.
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