Tigers legend Bachar Houli reveals$850,000 grant for kids’ interfaith centre to fight bullying
Richmond legend Bachar Houli wants to keep kids off the streets and welcomes an $850,000 grant for a new interfaith community centre to help stem bullying and antisemitic behaviour.
VIC News
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Tigers legend Bachar Houli is working to keep kids safe and engaged with the development of an interfaith community centre in Melbourne’s inner west.
He yesterday helped announce the new youth asset for Newport.
It will be given $850,000 of Commonwealth cash for construction of classrooms, a library and a gym, on the site of the Australian Islamic Centre.
“We’re trying to keep the youth off the streets,” Houli said. “We can keep them in a nice warm place. Without a central hub, we find they (local youth) are lost.”
The Morrison Government will also announce today a $3 million boost to the Anti-Defamation Commission’s Click Against Hate scheme.
The funding will allow the program — designed to teach kids to reject antisemitic and bullying behaviour — rolled out into a further 500 schools.
“It’s important to show leadership when it comes to confronting this sort of ugliness in our society,” said federal Education Minister Dan Tehan.
“Expanding this program will help more schools develop strategies to respond to intolerance so that students feel safe and be able to learn in an environment free of hate.”
Anti-Defamation Commission chairman Dr Dvir Abramovich said the program was designed to quash bigotry and prejudice.
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“This partnership will empower young people to confront the scourge of antisemitism and bigotry, which have reached unprecedented and alarming levels, and build understanding of the value and benefits of diversity and respect,” he said.
The expansion of the Click Against Hate scheme comes after two serious incidents of antisemitic bullying in Melbourne schools at the end of 2019.
In one case, a five-year-old was reportedly called “Jewish vermin”, “the dirty Jew” and a “Jewish cockroach” over months of bullying in school bathrooms.
In a second incident, a 12-year-old student was forced to kiss the feet of a Muslim child.
The student was also beaten and harassed.