By Cam Lucadou-Wells
State Election night will mark 40 years for a ground-breaking Springvale support group.
Springvale Indo-Chinese Mutual Assistance Association, which was created by 30 people around a kitchen table in 1982, is set to celebrate its birthday around restaurant tables on 26 November.
From the outset, SICMAA championed the successful settlement of Indochinese communities – Cambodian, Vietnamese, Laotian as well as ethnic Chinese from those countries.
It was born in response to the growing numbers of new arrivals and refugees moving out of the Enterprise Hostel in Springvale.
They needed accommodation, clothes, English language classes and other essentials.
SICMAA president Be Ha was one of the former Enterprise Hostel refugees.
“There was nothing in Australia like SICMAA when it came into being,” Ms Ha says.
After working in a factory for two years she volunteered for SCAAB (Springvale Community Aid and Assistance Bureau) where she met her long-held mentor, the late Merle Mitchell.
Ms Ha has since served many years as treasurer and president at SICMAA. She was recently named as a City of Greater Dandenong Living Treasure.
Based next to parkland and gardens in a quiet corner of Morwell Avenue, SICMAA is a place to learn skills, share a meal and companionship.
Services include family violence services, problem gambling counselling, English language and numeracy classes, tax return help, line dancing, yoga, cooking and sports.
It also provides health and legal referrals, provides talks on Vietnamese culture, discrimination advice and Covid information.
“We are here to continue to support and to serve the community as much as we can,” Ms Ha says.
“Because when we first came here, the Australian Government opened their arms and hearts and welcomed us.
“We love to pay the community back as much as we can, to help people in need.”
Most notably, SICMAA raised $1.5 million to help in the Black Saturday bushfire appeal.
It is an annual donor to the Good Friday Appeal for the Royal Childrens Hospital, raising $500,000 in a special concert in 2017.
The group is connected to Vietnamese communities across Australia. It also partners in research projects with Monash University.
During Covid, SICMAA was active in distributing food as well as holding online health and vaccine information sessions.
In recent times, the service seemed to live online. And it had to work hard to keep members connected.
In one instance, it taught a member how to communicate with her father in a nursing home via computer while the nursing home was locked-down.
In other cases, how to navigate the My Gov website for Medicare and pension services.
“I know Covid isn’t over yet,” Ms Ha says.
“But it’s been good to be back here (face to face).”
SICMAA is keen to hear from anyone involved in the group 40 years ago. Call 9547 6161
