SHARP MINDS
STAYING CONNECTED
WHEN you move half
way around the world,
leaving family and
friends behind, staying
connected becomes one
of the most important
things in a person’s
life, and this is true for
members of the Bosnian
Senior’s Group.
Many of the seniors, who fled war-torn
Bosnia, arrived in Australia without their
family and friends, didn’t speak English,
had no jobs and found it difficult to
communicate with others. But recent
developments in communication technology
are providing new ways for people from
all over the world to connect. Through
the new, Federally funded Digital Local
Government Program, the City of Salisbury
is looking at how it can facilitate better
communication for people experiencing this
sort of isolation.
The Digital Local Government Program is
one of three City of Salisbury programs
funded through the Department of
Broadband, Communications and the Digital
Economy (DBCDE). It will pilot the use
of video conferencing within its Healthy
Ageing & Access Programs.
Working with cultural and linguistically
diverse groups such as the Bosnian
Senior’s Group, the program will look
for opportunities to help members to
communicate with loved ones back in their
home countries or across Australia.
“Most of us living here went through the
war,” said Hamza Begovic, “and many
suffer from post-traumatic stress and we
find it hard to communicate with others.”
Members of the Bosnian Senior’s Group
In particular, the group would like to
develop links with a newly opened Healthy
Ageing Centre in Sarajevo.
“We hope the program will allow us
to speak with these people in our own
language, to exchange ideas with other
groups like ours and most importantly, share
information. We all want information from
Bosnia,” continued Hamza.
The Digital Local Government Program aims
to enhance the ways in which the City of
Salisbury designs and delivers its services
to the community using the capacity of the
National Broadband Network (NBN) and
NBN-enabled technologies.
As part of the project, the City of Salisbury
has installed video conferencing units
across seven of its community facilities.
Over the coming months, the Digital Local
Government Program will test and trial the
use of the units through existing Healthy
Ageing & Access programs.
It is hoped the program will enable people
to communicate with loved ones, gain
access to professionals, share information
and to learn from others.
For Aisa Dedovic, it’s extremely important
to stay in touch with others who have
similar experiences.
“Communicating with each other is like
therapy and for me; my mum and aunt
still live in Sarajevo. The program that the
Council is running will help us to stay in
touch and to connect with health centres
that have groups doing activities like craft,
art, gym and exhibitions – we can learn
from them and do things similar to them.”
The City of Salisbury will pilot activities
across community facilities until early 2014.
i
Please contact Jessica Steinborner,
Project Officer, on 8406 8222 for
more information.
www.salisbury.sa.gov.au | SALISBURY AWARE | SUMMER 2013 | 13