![\"\"](\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2022\/03\/Jen-Mallacoota-225x300.jpg\")
Joining the Red Cross, Ms Hamilton Browne has been involved in many emergency and food relief efforts since, but one of the most memorable is her trip to Gippsland during the Black Summer bushfires just over two years ago.<\/p>\n
Trained in psychological first aid, she boarded a tiny plane to Mallacoota from Melbourne, not knowing where she would sleep, or the extent of the \u201chorrifying trauma\u201d the community had faced but she knew, \u201cI had to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe worked at an assistance centre… We could refer people to support, but sometimes they just wanted a cup of tea and a chinwag, which was what they needed; someone to talk to and someone to listen,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve lost so much, and yet they still ask about you.\u201d<\/p>\n
The small Red Cross team travelled with their own psychologist for support. Having been in Mallacoota for 10 days, he assessed Ms Hamilton Browne\u2019s mental health and gave her feedback.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe referred to me as \u2018sprinkling love and fairy dust wherever I go,\u2019 and they still call me Sprinkles,\u201d she laughed.<\/p>\n More recently she has received a National Emergency Medal from the Federal Government for her contribution to emergency bushfire relief in Mallacoota.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think I need to be awarded for helping where I can when I have so much myself, but I feel eternally grateful and am humbled. I will continue to give back to the community wherever I can,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Since leaving the KIDS Foundation, Ms Hamilton Browne has worked at the Hepburn Shire in their flood office, and now is venue team leader at the Eureka Centre.<\/p>\n \u201cI just love coming to work. I work with great people next to a beautiful park, and sometimes I get to be at the front desk yakking with our visitors. I just can\u2019t help myself,\u201d she laughed.<\/p>\n Ms Hamilton Browne also volunteers with the City of Ballarat to assist them in running public events, like the Begonia Festival, where possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" LIVING in Zimbabwe and South Africa as a young person, Jenny Hamilton Browne was a child of war. \u201cAt boarding school, we were taught to wrap ourselves in our doonas when the town was under rocket or mortar attack,\u201d she said. These experiences shaped her into a \u201ccommunity person,\u201d who is a passionate humanitarian and […]<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2022\/03\/Jen-medal-225x300.jpg\")