Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I am going to talk about an impending event in my electorate which is part of the South Perth Fiesta, which I recently spoke about in this place. The event, to be held on 29 March 2009, is the Esther Fiesta ‘Fight Against Drugs’ Fun Run. It will be a five-kilometre walk or run along the South Perth foreshore, including prams and wheelchairs. The run is for individuals and corporate teams of five. It will start at 8 am at Mends Street jetty in South Perth. Registration will start from 7 am, and the flyer I have says that presentations will be at 9.30 am. Hopefully I will make the presentation in time! Children under the age of 12 can enter for free, so it is a real family event. I encourage as many people as possible to get along. There are five prizewinner categories for both men and women in this event. I just managed to qualify for the over-45 category.

I would now like to tell you a bit about the Esther Foundation, which is running this event, and where the funds raised will be going to. The Esther Foundation operates a women’s health and development program through seven residential premises in South Perth, housing more than 35 women and their children. The program is full time and offers extensive support and assistance to young women in a safe and structured environment. The broadly structured program facilitates specific group and individual counselling for the following issues and concerns faced by young women: substance abuse, sexual and emotional abuse, domestic violence, mental health, teenage pregnancy, self-harming, suicidal ideas, eating disorders, family breakdown and depression.

The Esther Foundation’s motto is ‘Restoring lives in need’. The mission statement of the foundation is very powerful, and I would like to read it to you:

“To encourage and empower individuals in need to attain their full potential”

The central objectives to achieving the Esther Foundation mission are:

• To reach out to young lives in our nation that are broken or poor of spirit, offering residential support and assistance toward the restoration of their lives through an extensive recovery program.
• To restore and reconcile family members into healthy relationships with each other and provide advocacy and support to bring children back into the care of their parents/families.
• To provide a solid and safe foundation for the recovery process to begin in an individual’s life, bringing them to a point where they become contributing members of our community; through education, life-skill training, personal development, creative arts, employment, mentoring and by providing leadership skills.

              …              …              …

This is a fantastic program that has returned the lives of many young women since 1994. This program takes six to 18 months, depending on the prospective participant’s circumstances. I would like to talk further on this subject but time limits me. I am sure I will use a longer timeslot in the future to give many more details on this fantastic program. I would like to thank the people who run this program. Thanks to Tina Damasco, who is listening, for alerting me to this fun run. I again encourage all local residents to participate in this event.