Walking home for children in need

THROUGHOUT Children’s Week, you might see a walking group wearing matching white t-shirts at Lake Wendouree.

The Salvation Army’s Karinya Support Services staff, including Louise Jeffrey, will step out over six kilometres daily from Tuesday, 25 to Saturday, 29 October as part of Walking Home, a fundraiser to assist vulnerable local children.

“The women and children that come to our service have experienced homelessness, family violence and trauma, and sometimes come to us without many of their own belongings,” Ms Jeffrey said.

“The funds that we raise stays in Ballarat and can be flexibly used to purchase resources for them, to link them into recreational activities, like community sport or music classes, to buy school uniforms, or to refer them to a paediatrician or counselling.

“We support them to have the opportunities that their peers and friendship groups have, which could simply be having a new pair of school shoes or runners. In a child’s world, that’s massive.”

Karinya Support Services’ core business is offering assistance and wholistic support to a family, with a childcare centre, mentoring program, and specialist children’s workers.

The fundraiser complements the theme of 2022 Children’s Week; ‘all children have the right to a standard of living that supports their wellbeing and healthy development.’

Ms Jeffrey said their aim is also to boost the community’s awareness that there are vulnerable children living in Ballarat.

“Everyone’s doing it tough, but these families are doing it even tougher,” she said.

Walkers will do a lap of Lake Wendouree between 12pm and 2pm each day, meeting at the rotunda near Racers. They invite anyone to join them, or make a donation at bit.ly/3D8SL2A.