Projects and Sponsorship

Subject to our yearly budget, projects eligible for our sponsorships include: 

• Employment and Work Experience for people with disabilities.
• Donations to organisations and charitable groups which work with people experiencing hardship.
• Brisbane-based in Australia and Central region based in Vietnam are preferable.

Only projects which do not have an ongoing funding commitment will be considered. 

Funded Projects in July 2023 – June 2024

In this financial year, Westside continues to focus on supporting school students and people in hardship.

In Brisbane:

• Providing financial support to eight (8) State Primary Schools. Funding will be used to subsidise breakfasts, excursions, uniforms and other related items for disadvantaged students.

In Vietnam:

• Providing almost 400 bicycles to disadvantaged students of Junior High Schools in the rural and mountainous areas of the Da Nang region. Approximately 20% of them are students from tribal minority groups.
• Providing food packages to about 150 people who are elderly, homeless and/ or with disabilities.
• Providing “once-off” cash payments, the value of up to $10 each to 250 people who are selling lotto tickets or home-grown vegetables on the streets or those who are otherwise in hardship.

Westside’s Achievements from June 2022 to July 2023

Excellent outcomes were achieved for 2022-23, namely:

In Brisbane:

• Nine (9) Queensland State Primary Schools have spent their Westside donations, to assist their disadvantaged students with the cost of school breakfasts, excursions, stationery, uniforms. One school used their donation to purchase a bicycle, washing machine, dryer and tents for families in hardship.

In Vietnam:

• 270 bicycles were donated to 270 disadvantaged students from 23 secondary schools in 30 locations in the Da Nang region. Most students are in rural, mountainous areas. 35% of students are from minority tribal groups. Of these bicycles, 22 were donated by Milton Brisbane State School students. Their support and compassion is greatly appreciated.
• 500 care packages, consisting of rice, noodles and tinned food or winter jackets; were provided to 500 families across 5 rural and remote locations. 
• School health insurance was paid for 10 students.
• 250 adults who sell lotto tickets, home-grown vegetables on the street or were otherwise in hardship, received “once off” cash payments of $5 – $10 each to help provide food and medicines. 

We are grateful to Thuy Tran and her volunteer team (Connect Charity group) for their hard work and commitment to the Charity work throughout the year. Without them, Westside would be unable to implement these charity programs.

 Westside’s Achievements from June 2021 to July 2022

Excellent outcomes were achieved for 2021-22, namely:

 In Brisbane: 

• Westside’s financial donations to a local community organisation Communify, have been used to provide several hundred meals to disadvantaged people; and to assist some young people with disabilities in their training and employment
• Five (5) Queensland State Primary schools have spent their Westside donations, to assist their disadvantaged students with the cost of school breakfasts, excursions, stationery, uniforms, and similar items

 In Vietnam: 

• 60 bicycles were donated to disadvantaged Primary school students in the remote area of Hue-Thua-Thien, via The Compassion Flower charity group.
• 270 bicycles were donated to 270 disadvantaged students from 23 secondary school in 23 locations in the Da Nang region. Most students are in rural, mountainous areas. 35% of students are from minority tribal groups. Of these bicycles, 10 were donated by Milton Brisbane State school’s students. Their support and compassion is greatly appreciated.
• 250 care packages, consisting of rice, noodles and tinned food or winter jackets; were provided to 250 families across 5 rural and remote locations.
• School health insurance was paid for 10 students
• 250 adults who sell lotto tickets, home grown vegetables on the street or were otherwise in hardship, received “once off” cash payments of $5-$10 each to help provide food and medicines.
• Support for young people with disabilities in Danang with their employment through the purchase of items produced by them.
• A survey was completed on the effectiveness of the “Bicycles for Learning” program. All bicycles are continuing to be used for the purposes for which they were donated.

 We are grateful to Thuy Tran and her volunteer team (Connect Charity group) for their hard work and commitment to the Charity work throughout the year. Without them, Westside would be unable to implement these charity programs.

 In Brisbane:

• Vocational training and employment support for six (6) people with disabilities
• Through a local community organisation, provide food vouchers to 150 families
• Work with a local community organisation to provide 16,000 free meals to women victims of Domestic Violence, homeless people and young adults between foster-care homes as well as people with mental illnesses
• Meet the electricity costs for one year to support about 20 refugees who are living in the community

In Vietnam:

• Donate 170 bicycles to junior High School students from poor families, in rural and remote locations
• Provide care packages (rice, noodles, cooking oil, canned food etc.) to 500 families who are victims of the late 2020 flood and landslides, or those who lost their livelihoods due to the coronavirus pandemic
• Provide food supplements to 100 patients in the Danang Lung Disease Hospital
• Provide employment for a number of people with disabilities or who were the victims of Human Trafficking

Westside’s Achievements  from July 2019 to June 2020

 
2020 was a challenging year around the world.  Westside Community Services Limited has shifted its core business, from providing employment and training services to people with disabilities, to providing financial support to disadvantaged people in Brisbane and Vietnam.

So far this year, Westside has donated about $100,000 to various community organizations and charity groups, in Brisbane and Vietnam to:

• support a number of people with disabilities in employment and training
• sponsor 5 school children from an Indigenous background, to complete their studies
• help provide more than 1000 care packages and food vouchers to disadvantaged people who were affected by COVID-19
• support 18 Asylum seekers, located in the north side of Brisbane
• provide the supporting network for parents of young people with disabilities in Brisbane
• working with local schools and volunteer groups to donate bicycles to students from poor families
• raise awareness of Human Trafficking in the Central Vietnam to at risk groups and social workers, via training and information leaflets
• create employment for Vietnamese women with disabilities, human trafficking victims and older women
• contribute to the running of classes to children in the mountain regions of Central Vietnam
• help fund and promote the on-going project “Beanies for Kiddies” to ensure young children have beanies during winter, and disadvantaged women can undertake paid work by knitting them

COVID-19 Relief