21 December 2007

FILIPINO-AUSTRALIAN APPOINTED AS LOCAL YOUTH REPRESENTATIVE IN WESTERN SYDNEY'S MULTICULTURAL ADVISORY COUNCIL

SYDNEY - The Philippine Consulate reported that a Filipino-Australian was recently appointed as the youth sector representative in the multicultural advisory council of the Western Sydney region.

Consul General to Sydney Maria Theresa Lazaro congratulated the 21-year-old Ana Clarissa Gacis for her recent appointment to the Nepean-Blacktown Regional Advisory Council of the Community Relations Commission for a Multicultural New South Wales (CRC), which takes effect on March 2008 with a three-year term. The CRC is a state-government body tasked to address issues relating to multiculturalism, ethnic affairs and cultural diversity. The CRC is chaired by Mr. Stepan Kerkyasharian.

In her remarks, Consul General Lazaro said: “The Consulate congratulates and welcomes the appointment of Ms. Gacis to the CRC Regional Council where the largest concentration of Filipinos in Australia is located. We expect her to bring into the Council the dynamism and the voice of the youth. We wish her all the success in the fulfillment of her duties with the best interests, not only of the Filipino-Australian youths but also with the broader multicultural spectrum of the other migrant youth communities in Western Sydney in mind.”

Ms. Gacis is currently taking up commerce law at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and is the coordinator of the Read Philippines Project with the Blacktown City Library. She is the granddaughter of Mrs. Elvira Gacis, the president of the Society of Australian-Filipino Seniors, Inc. (SAFSI).

The Nepean-Blacktown Regional Advisory Council is one of ten regional councils created by the CRC to assist in its interaction with people representing the multicultural community in rural and regional areas. Each council is made up of fifteen people drawn from local communities and State Government agencies including Department of Education and Training, Community Services, Police and Housing as well as local government.

Among the functions of the Regional Councils include: (1) providing advice to the CRC on matters relating to the latter’s mandate; (2) creating links in rural and regional areas to assist community relations and cultural diversity through exchange of information, discussion and joint action on local community relations issues that require attention; and (3) improving communication between the community and government and enable the CRC to work with local agencies and communities.

The Nepean-Blacktown region includes the major suburban cities of Blacktown and Penrith with a total population of 25,000 residents of Filipino heritage or 36 percent of the total Filipino population located in Greater Sydney Area. END