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Coffey improves the lives of Australian Indigenous Communities
(
6 October 2010) Coffey International Limited subsidiary, Coffey Projects, is working with the Commonwealth Department of Families Housing Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) to help ‘close the gap’ and provide better futures for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in living in remote Indigenous communities and town camps in the Northern Territory.
The Coffey Projects office in Darwin has secured a major project commission expanding an existing project working for FaHCSIA to manage asbestos removal, and the potential for asbestos-related illnesses, in a further 67 aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory.
The initial project was a trial run, managing asbestos removal and associated works in Belyuen, 128km south west of Darwin. As a result of Coffey Project’s strong performance managing this project, their contract has been expanded by FaHCSIA to include communities throughout the Tiwi, Arnhem, Central Australian and Katherine regions. All of these communities were identified in the Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER) measures as having asbestos.
A major contributing factor to the success of the initial project in Belyuen was the recognition of community consultation, education and engagement as a critical part of the process. This process of community involvement will continue to be incorporated into the rollout of the project.
In Belyuen a series of meetings were held with community members and staff to advise of the work that was required, provide an understanding of the dangers of asbestos, and how to plan this work with least impact to the community. A member of the community was also employed as an interpreter, door-knocking and briefing residents to ensure that they understood what was happening.
School children have also been taught about the dangers of asbestos. During briefings given directly to the children by Coffey, flip charts and photographs compiled jointly by Coffey and FaHCSIA have been used to teach children how to identify asbestos if they come across any in the community. Children are also told who to report it to.
According to Paul O’Callaghan, Senior Project Manager at Coffey Projects “We are proud to be associated with FaHCSIA and the remote Northern Territory communities on this benchmark project. It delivers on Coffey’s vision statement of ‘global specialists solving emerging challenges to improve the lives of communities’ and the FaHCSIA’s aim of ‘improving the lives of Australians’. We see it as an important step towards delivering the commitment by all Australian governments of closing the gap.”
Media contacts
Prue Bowley, External Communications Manager, Coffey
T +61 8 8418 1566; F +61 8 8224 0453; E: prue_bowley@coffey.com
