Department: Wellbeing

Maina

Maina
Maina

Hi, I am Maina, a mother of 2 adult daughters. I grew up in Singapore and have been exposed to diverse cultures such as Malaysian, Chinese, Indian and other backgrounds.   

After working as a lawyer in Singapore, I moved to Australia in 1988. Here I worked for an insurance company, where I got promoted 3 times in 6 months. In addition, I studied Australian law and became a qualified lawyer in Australia in 1990. I then worked for one of the top firms in Australia. In 1992 I set up my own law firm, Maina Gordon Solicitors. In 1995, I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and have ambulated in a wheelchair since 2008. This has never prevented me from achieving my goals and grabbing life to its fullest. 

Apart from working as a lawyer, I created my first peer group, MOTHERS IN LAW in 2002, for female lawyers working from home in the North Shore. We still meet every month. It will be our 20th year anniversary in March 2022. I also volunteer for Multiple Sclerosis Australia (from 2004), the Cancer Council (from 2008) and the Pink Sari project (from 2017), an initiative supporting women from Indian and Sri Lankan backgrounds to get tested for cancer. I have also travelled to many places in the world. 

 I now work with DDA as a caring advocate, peer Facilitator and peer mentor. 

I can offer support in numerous areas, not limited to:  

  • assisting you to set, review and achieve goals  
  • Public Speaking 
  • Advocacy Skills, including negotiation 
  • Networking skills in helping develop community connections 
  • travelling 
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Sophon

Sophon
Sophon

Hi, I’m Sophon a Khmer women.

I live independently with intellectual disability and a physical issue with my right arm from Polio as a child, so I have weakness to my right upper limb with chronic lower back pain. I am very active in my Local Community Church and with the Khmer Community Language Sunday School. My languages are my identity.

Through Diversity and Disability Alliance’s (DDAlliance) training I promote myself to have developed my passion for working with people with disability. I am excited about receiving such a special award (certificate) and surpassing the goals I set for myself.

I am inspired to be a peer facilitator and peer mentor to share my ideas with my peers and colleagues.

Peer mentoring has led me to want to complete more training and gain as much experience as I can to become better and give Peer Support.

My passions are working with new peers and sharing valuable lived experiences with others at the DDAlliance peer cafes. I faced many barriers in my life which challenged my confidence and experiences with vulnerability, however, it becomes my motivation to break through and remove stigmas to live my life. I gained self confidence through my involvement at peer cafes and paying it forward in my mentoring sessions. I am keen about offering confidence skills to peers and can practice on setting goals you like to pursue together.

I have a firm belief that as peers we are equals and I cherish peer relationships as we build rapport in our future mentor sessions.

I also love to support peers by advocating for people with disability, we can help create change through sharing stories, experiences from wisdom and still feel confident by getting involved in community programs.

If you would like to work with me on your journey, part of my offerings are supporting peers to find support with getting a support worker or carer, to boost your independence in living the life you want. And provide information about your rights as a fellow peer. For social goals, I can introduce you to peer support groups or community events if you like to become social in your area.

I also offer emotional support as I can support you with finding mental services that is applicable to your situation.

Part of my hobbies I enjoy watching the show about Kurt Fearnley from ABC 24 News where he talks about disability. He inspires me and I would like to recommend this show to peers.

I’m active in my mentor role and I contribute as much as I can.

Mentoring training and my lived experience gives me the skills to support peers. If you select me as your mentor I can offer my great skills in supporting you on an empathetic and caring level.

Let me support you
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Phuong

Phuong
Phuong

I am Phuong Thi and a Vietnamese Australian. 

I use a wheelchair and I live in my own home. I made adaptations in my home so I can live a very independent life.  

A little more about myself, I am a good-natured person, who  enjoys spending time in nature and with my fellow peers. I find gratitude in what life offers to me spiritually. 

I am an emotionally rich person. When I am happy, my world is filled with the blue-sky colour, and my favourite colour is the Jacaranda flower purple. 

I worked as a fashion designer, and I made clothes for customers. I love getting well dressed. I also volunteer and I am passionate about this. I worked locally at Villawood Primary school as a kitchen hand, and I am a member of a local choir. The choir visits local nursing homes and sing the carols over Christmas. 

In the last 4 years I have been active in DDA’s projects and activities. I attended many training programs.  I am now a facilitator for the Vietnamese peer café group and a trained peer mentor.  

In the peer cafe, we provide support and assist peers with access to useful information in the community. My passion is to gain more knowledge so I can better support my peers.

I am a member of the Circle of Support Team.   We built a circle of support for people with disability from multicultural backgrounds. My role there, is to connect, support and mentor people to achieve their dreams and live a good and independent life.  

  My goal as a peer mentor is to work with you as a team, based on trust and respect. I am a willing listener and as a peer mentor I hope we together can achieve the best outcome for you. My dedication to peer mentoring is driven by my deep sense of care for you as a peer.  

Peers may have issues, challenges and goals they like to work through. My life and work were also a filled with difficulties and challenges, but I have stayed positive and forward looking. 

My work as a tailor helped me a great deal in getting to know many people with unique needs and wants. I deeply care about people around me, listen attentively and always find the best ways to fulfill my work. 

I would like to share with my peers my experiences and stories. I would love to see all of us work side by side in this journey of peer support.  

if you choose me as your peer mentor, I can support you in the best way possible as I have shared lived experiences, and I will be using my peer mentor skills to help you reach your goal.  

Let me support you
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David

David
David

Hello, I’m David, I’m a person with physical and psychological disability.

My cultural background is Chinese, I was born in China, Beijing. The languages I speak are Mandarin, English and I can help peers connect with diverse communities.

I have had many challenges as a person mental health issues. From my previous struggle, I received many support from the organisations (such as DDAlliance, Settlement Services International, Multicultural Disabilit Adovacy Association and Georges River Council)and in return I want to give back to the community.

I did a volunteer job at the Salvation Army for 3 years. For all the Chinese people that came into the service, I supported them by having a coffee with them, spent time with them and accompany and supported them through Mandarin interpretation to help them with finding a social worker to meet their needs. I have connections with the social workers working in the Salvation Army and St Vincent De Paul Society.Also, we gave out gift-cards and food to people in financial stress, and gift cards for groceries.

I am a very passionate individual that could provide support to people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds and Chinese peers, I have a strong sympathy about the stigmas around mental health and disability in the Asian community. Therefore, I have set up a Chinese Disability Peer Support Group and became a coordinator for this group in the last 3 years. I organise people from external organisations (invite managers of Age and Disability Commission, Centrelink, NDIS speakers, mental health coordinating council to attend the Peer Cafes to speak about their services, information on finding support) I welcome new peers, family members into the space. Also, I organise speakers to join our Peer Café and present their work.

In my personal time I am active in different activities, such as hiking and golfing. I organised special events to celebrate different events for the year, with Chinese New Year and Christmas. Every year, I access a grant forum Carers NSW to fund our group with $300 for events like barbeques, and this is for Carers. I also apply grants from my local council to support the group, this often involves free venue hire like the library for meetings.

I like to help peers from Chinese backgrounds to access carers, introduce organisations that provide services to find a carer, for example CASS.

The skills I have include assisting peers with accessing NDIS and Centrelink for the carers payment and disability pension support. I help peers to apply for the disability pension support.

I’ve supported many members from my group to navigate government systems to get the support theyneed, as this helped peers receive funding, and support when they have lost housing.I previously supported peers to access services for housing applications, bywriting a letter to the local MP to take action. I connect peers to services with housing assistance, social workers to receive support and guidance with the procedures.

With my expertise, I am able to support you to access Legal Aid, going to court with the AAT, making a complaint, and develop advocacy skills. I can support peers to be linked to the right services.

I am keen and confident aboutsupportingCALDpeople with disability to access peer support groups and different services.

Let me support you
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