Surrey Hills Wattle Park Conference

Vinnies has Twins

Vinnies’ Conferences throughout Australia are very much involved in supporting emerging partners overseas.  We currently provide financial support to 10 ‘Countries’ in our region whose Conferences benefit from the program. 

The concept is known as Twinning and the countries we currently assist include:

Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Philippines, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Caroline Islands (a group of 500 coral islands north of Papua New Guinea) and Kiribati (pronounced Kiribas – a group of about 30 small coral islands in the central Pacific about 5,000 kms from Australia and 3,000 kms from Hawaii).

The activity of twinning generally starts with the establishment of a connection between a Conference in Australia and an overseas ‘twin’.  Letters/cards are an effective way to forge friendships and quarterly financial assistance ensures that the Vinnies ethos of providing practical help to those in need is spread further throughout our region.

The most current nation-wide figures available are for 2021 (right in the heart of the pandemic) and should be a source of great pride to all supporters of our fantastic Society:

Australian Conferences providing twinning assistance: 1,182

Recipient Conferences (10 countries): 1,892 

Financial Assistance:   $548,000

Closer to home, our Conference at Surrey Hills/Wattle Park has been involved for more than 25 years with a Vinnies Conference (Thundathuvilai) in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.  Our twin is associated with St Antony’s Church (established in 1966) located in the small town of Karungal at the very bottom of India and some 725 kms south-west of the state capital Chennai (formerly Madras).  Generally, it is accurate to say there is nothing small about India e.g. population of Tamil Nadu is 76 million but Karungal is home to a mere 16,000 residents.

Perhaps the wonderful Kevin Carmody song made famous by Paul Kelly best sums up the fantastic work being done by Vinnies’ Conferences in small towns such as Karungal – From little things big things grow.

Chennai / Madras (Capital of Tamil Nadu)

St Anthony’s, Karungal

By Brian Moore, Surrey Hills Wattle Park Conference

To donate to the St Vincent de Paul Winter Appeal, please download the Appeal Donation Form, complete and follow the lodgement instructions or to learn more about the works of St Vincent de Paul visit Vinnies.

Donations can also be made direct to one of the parish’s Conferences using the following QR code:

Surrey Hills/Wattle Park Conference

  Camberwell Conference

 Deepdene/Balwyn Conference