By Denis Kayenge Kinkufi

MELBOURNE - American President John F. Kennedy once declared that "one person can make a difference and every person should try" and a group of Congolese in Australia, concerned at the situation in the country of their birth, have taken up his challenge.

The Democratic Republic of Congo Community Association of Victoria (DRCCAV) represents about 300 Congolese now resident in the state and is the largest such Congolese community association in the nation.

 Melbourne - Wesa Chau, a leading advocate for international students and a member of an innovative media mentoring project, has been named Young Victorian of the Year.
 
Ms Chau, 27, founded the Australian Federation of International Students (AFIS) in 2002 after emigrating to Australia from China as a child.  She received her award on Thursday at a ceremony to mark Victoria Day held at Melbourne Town Hall.
 

By Sherinald Shwe
 

Lwe Moo San Tay, Sheri Shwe and Myo Toke are returning to the Thai-Burma border to help their people.
Picture: DAVID SMITH, Leader Community Newspapers
 
MYO Toke was just four when he and his family were forced to flee from their Karen village in north-east Burma when it was burned down by soldiers.

“At the time I wasn’t scared. I didn’t know the danger we were in when our village was attacked because I was running with my family and I felt very safe,” says Myo, now 19.

A new intake of reporters is now linking up with mentors to provide stories for New Australia Media and for Leader Community Newspapers.

More than 20 recruits, from diverse backgrounds, recently attended a training day where they discussed negative media coverage of their communities and suggested stories they would like to investigate with the help of journalist mentors.

The aims of New Australia Media - in giving a voice to young people from refugee and migrant communities and helping to make the mainstream media more multicultural - were discussed.

By Fatima Dennaoui
 
Melbourne is a city of festivals, with regular celebrations of art and culture taking place throughout the year.
 
February marks the Lunar New Year with partying in Chinatown, while March has both Moomba, and the Greek Australian community’s Antipodes Festival.
 
In the western suburb of Newport, a twice-yearly Eid festival is a big celebration for local Muslim and non-Muslim residents.
 
This audio report from Fatima Dennaoui.

By Laura Borghouts

 Melbourne - The screening of the Movie “Balibo” has resurrected painful memories of the events of October 1975 when five Australian journalists were killed during the Indonesian invasion of East Timor.

Balibo is a small village in the Bonabaro region of East Timor, just 10 kilometers from the Indonesian border. It was there that the five newsmen and technicians from Channel 7 and Channel 9 TV networks planned to capture footage of Indonesian troops setting foot in the former Portuguese territory.

By Setyo Budi

MELBOURNE -- Non-Government Organisations in East Timor are awaiting a reply from donor countries to their appeal for aid to allow the Dili government to push ahead with development plans to tackle the long-term causes of poverty and conflict in that country, according to reports reaching here.

By Jennifer Henderson

 MELBOURNE - Australians tourists to Bali who show too much skin could be targets of new laws passed in an Anti-Pornography bill. The bill, which was originally drafted in 1999, contains definitions of pornography and restrictions on clothing and behaviour.

Hardline Islamic parties such as KAMMI and The Justice Party have pressured the government to pass the bill. A day before the law was passed hundreds of Muslim Indonesians rallied for its support in Jakarta. They claimed that the bill was vital to protect women and children from sexual attacks.

By Akech Manyiel and Pamela Scriven*

  Melbourne - They come from Cambodia, China and the Philippines but the choristers of the Many Moons choir are united in song.