When local families are forced to travel for medical care, something as simple as a hot meal can make an overwhelming time easier. A local fundraising effort by Meals on Wheels Parkes and Forbes has resulted in more than 220 meals being provided to Ronald McDonald House Orange.

The idea for the fundraiser came from a conversation about how often people from the Parkes and Forbes communities rely on Ronald McDonald House Orange when travelling for medical care.

Similar to Meals on Wheels services, the house relies heavily on volunteers and com­munity support to help provide meals for those staying there.

Recognising the shared values between the two services, Jamie Webb and Carolyn Rice from Meals on Wheels Parkes and Forbes proposed a simple but meaningful way to help — inviting Meals on Wheels clients and volunteers to donate the cost of just one meal to help fill the house’s freezers in the lead-up to Christmas.

Running throughout October, the initiative raised $1,780, which directly funded more than 220 meals. These meals will help ease daily pressures for families who are often far from home, supporting loved ones through

illness.

On 15 December, Jamie Webb and Caro­lyn Rice visited Ronald McDonald House Orange, where they met with Rebecca Walsh, Executive Officer of Ronald McDon­ald House Charities Central West NSW, to witness the arrival of the first delivery of meals.

The meals were kindly delivered by Sa­rah Thomas, Manager of Bathurst Meals on

Wheels, who generously supported the ini­tiative and will continue supplying meals as required by the house.

A tour of the facility provided an opportu­nity to share stories, experiences, and the strong sense of community that underpins all three services.

This fundraiser shows how small ideas supported by local communities can make a real difference during difficult times.

Community leaders, frontline workers and advocates participate in the panel discussion topic ‘Men must be part of the solution’.

CatholicCare Wilcannia-Forbes has brought together frontline workers, community advo­cates and leading voices to explain the re­alities of domestic violence in regional, rural and remote NSW.

Hidden No More: shining the light on domestic violence in rural communities brought together more than 100 committed people as an important step towards lasting and practical change.

Its keynote speakers were NSW Women’s Safety Commissioner Dr Hannah Tonkin, the Hon. Stephen Lawrence MLC, author, professor and investigative journalist Jess Hill, NSW Police Incident and Emergency Management Commander Superintendent Greg Moore, and Magistrate Aaron Tang, Local Court of NSW.

CatholicCare Wilcannia-Forbes team members from Forbes and Parkes were part of the program’s panel discussions, joined by other community leaders, frontline workers and advocates.

Orana and Far West continues to record domestic violence-related assault rates more than three times the NSW average. In remote areas, women experience assaultrelated hospitalisations at 43 times the rate of women in major cities.

“Those are statistics, but for our team, we see real women and children, and the dam­age domestic violence does,” CatholicCare Wilcannia-Forbes CEO Anne-Marie Mioche said after the symposium.

“We’re trying to protect women and their children in areas with very few services,” Ms Mioche said.

“Services that are available in rural com­munities are often seeing two to three times the number of women they are funded to support.

Ms Mioche said she wanted both the fed­eral and state governments to reassess funding allocations for regional and remote communities.

CatholicCare Wilcannia-Forbes is a pro­vider of the Men’s Behaviour Change Pro­gram, which Ms Mioche describes as hav­ing “huge potential to transform behaviour”.“For the men who really embrace the pro­gram, it is not unusual for them to participate again by choice,” she said. “We need more programs like this, giving men the tools and strategies to stop that behaviour.”