By CAMERON LUCADOU-WELLS
A WOMEN’S health service that helps culturally diverse communities has axed staff and is set to stop sex education programs for girls after a 10 per cent state funding cut.
Women’s Health South East, based in Dandenong, helps about 250 women. Most are newly arrived refugees and from culturally-and-linguistically diverse (CALD) communities.
Last week, the service was forced to sack three of its 13 staff. Among the programs already cut are life skills and sex education classes for girls and Photography on the Move sessions for women in retirement homes.
Chief executive Eva Orr said about 20 per cent of programs would cease in coming weeks, including anti-bullying and ‘staying safe’ programs.
“It’s quite possible it will have an adverse effect on CALD women. We have less funding available for our programs,” Ms Orr said. “We’ll have to try to develop partnerships with other agencies to continue representing our areas.”
She said its services were particularly trusted by CALD families, where husbands forbade their wives from visiting services with men in the building.
“We’ve built up a lot of trust with the women. They come in here a great amount of time. There’s nowhere else for these women to go because men are at other services.”
One key area is family violence. Some women erroneously thought it was permissible for their husbands to hit them in certain circumstances, Ms Orr said.
The service also helps CALD women with advice on sexual health and reproduction. “In some communities, women don’t even talk about sex, let alone knowing about having a Pap smear.”
The state government funding cuts are about 10 per cent in the next two years, but in real terms are up to 25 per cent, Ms Orr said. The cuts hadn’t included inflation and cost-of-living rises, and steep award increases for community service workers.
The first wage rise instalments are in July and December, part of increases of up to 41 per cent over eight years. “We’d hoped that the state government would pass on the wage increases in its funding,” Ms Orr said.
A spokeswoman for Health Minister David Davis said the cut was a “modest reduction” and “a reflection of the challenging economic times faced by Victoria”.
The spokeswoman said the Department of Health said it would seek to maintain the ongoing programs for CALD communities as a “high priority”.
She said the department would work with agencies such as WHISE to find “efficiencies through streamlining and integrating back-office functions”.
She said the service’s funding reduction of $27,900 in 2012-13 was out of a total budget of $838,000.
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