This week, we had our final event for the community engagement space, the Muslim Leaders Forum for Gambling Harm Awareness.
The event was proudly sponsored by Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria and supported by Victoria Police, SHARC, Arabic Welfare and Banyule Community Health.
All community engagement events are MC'ed by our student representatives. This one was MC'ed by Senior SRC student Abu Bakr. Our Year 3 students sang the national anthem.
Presentations were made by representatives from each organisation including indigenous Muslim elder of the Wurunjeri Br. Andrew Gardiner, former Mayor Councillor Kris Pavlidis and Inspector Andrew Falconer. Mufti Aasim Rashid shared some insightful words on the Islamic perspective on gambling and the priority given to preserving life.
The event closed with a Q&A panel and closing prayers by Principal Mr Fazeel Arain.
We welcome our community to raise awareness on this epidemic which is effecting our local community.
Please CLICK HERE to sign the campaign below to show your support and demand better outcomes from your government.
The City of Whittlesea is currently in the top 10 out of all the regions in Victoria for the amount of money lost to the pokies. As a community, we lose on average $300,000 every single day. The City of Whittlesea also holds some of the lowest social-economic suburbs in all of Victoria. The predatory nature of the gambling industry is reflecting in crime rates, family violence statistics, drug & alcohol abuse and suicide rates in regions with the highest losses.