Elias Nassif
have two churches in the village , so we helped with money to build the church hall and carry out any repair work that was needed ,” Elias said .
“ Our village had one very old water mains and we paid for it to be cleaned and repaired as it was used by all the villages around them . Because of the length of the war many basic services were not provided and we raised money for a sewerage system for our village . Between 1990 and 2000 we applied for the permit from the government , and arranged for the sewers to be built .
Our organisation also arranged for a morgue to be built and provided coffins for people who pass away . After the war they managed to get a village council in place and after they were organised we stepped back so they could run it on their own .”
After making sure their home town was taken care of , the organisation turned their sights to their new country which had provided so much for the families they had had since arriving in Australia . “ It is important to do something for the country which gave us so many opportunities , our children were born here and we chose to live here by our own decision , we wanted to give back to show we are committed to Australia as our home .”
Elias is not the only family member to help out in their fundraising , his son , Rony is also involved , although , he gives all the credit to his dad and the other members of the organisation . At their recent charity event , which was held in October , Rony
was the MC for the evening and doing all the behind the scenes tech requirements to make sure the event runs smoothly .
This year they raised $ 13,300 for the Children ’ s Hospital in Westmead , with much of it made through raffles and auctions at their annual function . A lot of this was due to the generous donations from the community .
“ The event was wonderful . We had 170 people attend , which is lower than our usual number of 300 people , but we still raised a lot of money . We had a table especially for staff from the hospital so they could watch it unfold , and see the effort , time and passion we put in to so we can raise money for them ,” Elias explained . “ We had a beautiful white pearl and diamond necklace , donated by Andy , the CEO of Midas Jewellers based in Sydney , which raised $ 2,500 . Our other large donation was a travel voucher for $ 1,500 donated by the CEO of CTC Franchise in Australia .”
As this was their first event since Covid they didn ’ t quite get the attendance numbers they were hoping for , but are confident that this will change next year when word of the fundraiser gets out into the community again .
Over the many years they have held their charity functions , they have supported charities such as Motor Neuron Disease research , Guide Dogs NSW , Westmead Children ’ s Hospital and other local charities .
The charity only does one big event each year , so make sure you keep a look out for it . Elias has been raising money for charity for over 40 years !
BLACKTOWN CITY INDEPENDENT theindependentmagazine . com . au MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY HOLIDAYS ! ISSUE 33 // NOVEMBER 2023 7