The Water Well Project has wide refugee sector support and recognition. We are so grateful to have been recognised with the following awards:
- 2021 HESTA Impact Award Finalist – Outstanding Organisation
- 2021 HESTA Excellence Awards Finalist – Community Services
- ProBono Australia Impact25 Awards nominee - Founder & Director Dr Linny Kimly Phuong
- 2019 Victoria Day Community Organisation of the Year
- 2019 Australian Migration & Settlement Awards in Settlement Innovation Finalist
- 2018 Melbourne Award for Contribution to Multiculturalism by a Community Organisation
Since our inception in 2011, The Water Well Project has:
- Delivered over 1000 free, interactive health education sessions across Victoria (Melbourne, Geelong, Albury-Wodonga), New South Wales and Tasmania (Figure 1). These health education sessions have been facilitated by our volunteer healthcare professionals to over 40 different language groups.
- Reached over 15,000 participants from migrant, refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds with flow on effects to family, friends and other community members. The immeasurable significance of information spread by ‘word of mouth’, especially in close-knit communities, is profound.
- Inducted over 600 volunteer healthcare professionals including doctors, nurses, midwives, speech pathologists, osteopaths, psychologists, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, dentists, paramedics, dieticians, social workers and pharmacists. Over $240,000 has been donated in volunteer healthcare professional time.
We are also proud to report overwhelmingly positive feedback from our participants. Our post-session survey results, which can serve as surrogate markers for improved health literacy, reveal that:
- 98% of respondents “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that they learned helpful information in the session
- 95% thought it would be “easy” to apply the skills they had learned in the session in their everyday life
- 94% “agreed” or “strongly” that the sessions would improve their physical or mental health
- 83.5% agreed that their confidence in COVID vaccination process has increased after attending the session
Additionally, since volunteering with The Water Well Project, our volunteers have self-reported:
- Increased confidence in working with interpreters
- Greater understanding of how to communicate with people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds
- Increased understanding of cultural barriers to achieving and maintaining health within migrant, refugee and asylum seeker populations