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| Aussie business body to help Indian students 'mingle' with crowd |
| Natasha Chaku/ PTI / Melbourne Jul 09, 2009, 13:34 IST |
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In the wake of recent attacks on Indian students, an Australian business body has come out with a novel initiative — "Friendship Programme" — for the newcomers in the country, to help them understand local culture better before they arrive Down Under.
The new initiative by the Australia-India Business Council (AIBC) aims to bring the two culture together in the long-term interest of the two countries that can improve both cultural and business relations.
The programme is based on the fact that cultural misunderstandings do occur and that a fractional minority can stir trouble — but as a positive initiative, 'Friendship' will provide a focus to bring forward the best of the two cultures — thereby helping Indian students to better comprehend and integrate with Australian culture.
Realising such attacks can be curb to some extent, AIBC has come up with a new idea of launching a portal "Buddy" under the new proposed public-private partnership 'Friendship programme' that can help an Indian student to migrate and integrate easily to a different culture.
AIBC is trying to bring all stakeholders including government, education institutes, student association as well as sports club to come under one umbrella 'Friendship'.
"The new programme will look at combining resources that would provide tangible support for Indian students in Australia," AIBC vice president Stephen Manallack said.
It has been seen that Indian students who made headlines recently for being attacked here were seen as 'soft targets' and one of the reason was their inability to mingle in Aussie culture.
Manallack explained the programme will comprise a 'Buddy' system involving sporting clubs like Soccer Australia and Cricket Australia. The initiative not only would assist students to know, meet and become friends with Australians but also access assistance with housing, employment and other form of support.
"The buddy system will be an interactive website for visiting Indian student. The website will accommodate groups and organisations and invite internationals students to join these group," he said.
The website will also include group discussions, cultural information and news.
He further explained that for Indian students, the online networking will mean that they have an Australian family that they can call on whenever required and through this association they learn how to integrate into the new society.
"There is no obligation on Aussie family — they may have few cricket games or invite them for BBQ, help them with any information they need," he discussed adding "Above all it will be a local point of contact that they can learn from."
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