Water program helps break down language barriers
The Water Wise program offered a series of free workshops for women and gender-diverse people across Melbourne’s northern suburbs.
Trained multilingual educators ran the workshops in Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi and Greek. They covered topics such as understanding water bills, applying for concessions and Utility Relief Grants, and how to contact Yarra Valley Water for further support.
Yarra Valley Water Managing Director Natalie Foeng said the program helped remove barriers that can prevent people from accessing support.
“We want everyone in our diverse community to feel confident managing their bills and accessing the support available when needed,” she said.
“Our partnership with Women’s Health in the North through the Water Wise program has been a big step towards achieving this. The feedback from attendees has been overwhelmingly positive and has shown that the workshops have helped remove some of the barriers that prevent people from getting support.”
Women’s Health in the North Manager, Economic Equality Manasi Wagh said the program had been invaluable to attendees.
“It’s about more than just water – it’s about economic confidence, environmental awareness, and cultural inclusion,” she said.
“It’s been great working with Yarra Valley Water to bring communities into the loop in a setting that is familiar and discuss financial support options.
"We look forward to continuing to work with Yarra Valley Water to support our communities going forward."
Yarra Valley Water’s website offers payment and support information in 24 languages https://www.yvw.com.au/help-advice/watercare/diverse-languages
The organisation’s Financial Help page also includes the phone numbers for various language and translation services https://www.yvw.com.au/help-advice/financial-help