OCEANIA/AUSTRALIA - CatholicCare and Lebanese Muslim Association first joint agreement for helping families in difficulty

Sydney (Agenzia Fides) - An agreement to help families in difficulty in the south west district of Sydney has just been signed by CatholicCare Sydney and Lebanese Muslim Association at Lakemba Mosque. The first joint programme consists in providing assistance for Muslims at CatholicCare's Family Relationship Centre in Bankstown. The innovative initiative has the consent of Sheikh Haisam Farache, Imam of Lakemba Mosque. "CatholicCare Sydney is very happy about this new partnership with the Lebanese Muslim Association," we read in a statement issued by the delegate administrator of CatholicCare Sydney, Bernard Boerma. For his part, Ziad Ghamraoui, General Manager of Lebanese Muslim Association Lakemba declared: "we are confident that the many different needs of Muslims can now be met, we are expecting great things from this joint venture and hope to collaborate in similar initiatives in the future." The partnership formalised a process of join activity started with the opening of a Family Relationship Centre in 2008. Sheikh Haisam became a member of the Family Relationship Centre (FRC) Community Counselling Committee, a committee of local communities representing the area of Bankstown, committed to guaranteeing good FRC services and to improving access to services of persons from different communities culturally and linguistically. CatholicCare hopes this will be the first of many joint initiatives for the benefit of people in difficulty. (AP) (17/7/2010 Agenzia Fides)