{"id":8594,"date":"2017-10-23T15:41:29","date_gmt":"2017-10-23T09:56:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pahichan.com\/?p=8594"},"modified":"2017-10-23T15:41:29","modified_gmt":"2017-10-23T09:56:29","slug":"inner-west-grants-go-to-lgbtiq-community-instead-of-sick-babies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/inner-west-grants-go-to-lgbtiq-community-instead-of-sick-babies\/","title":{"rendered":"Inner West grants go to LGBTIQ community instead of sick babies"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"tg-tlc-storybody_intro\">\n<p data-kiosked-context-name=\"\">Kathmandu (Pahichan) October 23 &#8211; A SYDNEY council is refusing grants to help sick babies, cancer victims, people with disabilities, church groups and street kids to instead spend the money on a queer formal, Mardi Gras floats, LGBTIQ self-defence classes and a lesbians picnic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Inner West Council is expected to next week rubber-stamp a recommendation to deny a $14,000 funding request from Royal Prince Alfred Hospital\u2019s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.<\/p>\n<p>The funds would have paid for one specialist chair for breastfeeding mothers and four infant resuscitators.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"tge-imagecaption\" data-kiosked-context-name=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"tge-imagecaption_img\" src=\"http:\/\/cdn.newsapi.com.au\/image\/v1\/d2728e9947cef177bd307b34bde51b5b?width=650\" width=\"650\" height=\"488\" \/><figcaption class=\"tge-imagecaption_caption\"><canvas width=\"29\" height=\"24\"><\/canvas>Reema El Qassem with her 13-month-old daughter Fatima Sari, who suffers from Prader-Willi syndrome. The mother of three urges Inner West council to fund specialised neonatal equipment. Picture: Tim Hunter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div id=\"kskdk_7347fc5f4989563fb33e92fe3a31415c\" class=\"kskdDiv kskdCls\" data-kiosked-role=\"anchor\" data-kiosked-type=\"in-line\" data-kioskid=\"k_7347fc5f4989563fb33e92fe3a31415c\"><\/div>\n<p>Deputy mayor Julie Passas, one of only two Liberals, is threatening to report her own council to the state government if these recommendations are passed on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Ms Passas is concerned after Youth Off The Streets, St Brendan\u2019s Church Annandale and the Cancer Patients Foundation missed out in favour of $6500 for the Lesbian Bisexual Queer Community Picnic, $2450 for LGBTIQ self-defence classes and $7500 on the state\u2019s first Queer Formal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy are we dividing the community just because of people\u2019s sexual orientation,\u201d Ms Passas said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have got to look after the most vulnerable in our community, not just one section of the community. It should be on a needs basis.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe gay community want their own formal; it is like Chinese people saying that they want an Asian-only formal.<\/p>\n<div class=\"tge-blockquote\"><canvas width=\"32\" height=\"24\"><\/canvas><\/p>\n<p class=\"tge-blockquote_text\">\u201cI don\u2019t think $14,000 is too much money. Those chairs are very good in helping mothers have skin-on-skin contact.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><canvas width=\"33\" height=\"24\"><\/canvas><\/div>\n<p>\u201cThe Office of Local Government needs to step in here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The council\u2019s 2017\/18 grants program, with a total of nearly $750,000 to distribute, also plans to give $35,000 to Marrickville Bowling and Recreation Club so it can replace ageing carpets.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the club raising $250,700 last year from 22 poker machines and Keno facilities, ratepayers will foot most of the bill for the fitout.<\/p>\n<p>Marrickville Bowling and Recreation Club director Terry Fox said: \u201cThe club does not have a great deal of money.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWherever people go, they are going to play poker machines. We do not push to make money from them. It is an older place and we are overdue for a facelift.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The council is also set to deny a $22,000 request from the Cancer Patients Foundation for a workshop to teach patients how to manage the appearance-related side effects caused by cancer treatment.<\/p>\n<p>The Australian Foundation for Disability is also set to receive a fraction ($7830) of the $27,900 it has asked for to fund seating, gardening equipment, multicultural events and wellbeing activities.<\/p>\n<p>Other disability and outreach organisations received far less than what they asked for.<\/p>\n<p>Mother-of-three Reema El Qassem\u2019s daughter Fatima, who suffers from Prader-Willi syndrome, last year spent weeks in RPA\u2019s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.<\/p>\n<p>Ms El Qassem has called on the council to support the hospital.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is important to fund equipment at the hospital because it affects the babies as well as the parents,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think $14,000 is too much money. Those chairs are very good in helping mothers have skin-on-skin contact.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"atom-videoplayer\"><\/div>\n<p>The AIDS Council Of NSW (ACON) is the organisation behind the LBQ Women\u2019s Community Picnic.<\/p>\n<p>CEO Nicolas (YES) Parkhill said: \u201cThe grant that ACON has been successful for will allow us to raise awareness with these women about the importance of breast cancer screening\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is a significant population of LBQ women in the Inner West, making an event held in the area that much more relevant and important.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>An IWC spokeswoman she said there were many more applications received than were able to be funded.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRecommendations are made by panels made up of expert community members and council staff with experience in grant assessment,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll recommendations for funding are made according to the grant guidelines.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRecommendations to partially-fund projects occurs in 54 per cent of all of applications.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPlease note that many groups apply for funding to more than one council grant.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She said money for Marrickville Bowling Club is from the state government NSW Government Stronger Communities Grant \u2014 a payment made to councils as part of the recent amalgamations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese grants are determined by an external panel made up of State MPs, a representative from the Department of Premier and Cabinet, an independent probity adviser, local community members and a single representative from council,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kathmandu (Pahichan) October 23 &#8211; A SYDNEY council is refusing grants to help sick babies, cancer victims, people with disabilities, church groups and street kids to instead spend the money on a queer formal, Mardi Gras floats, LGBTIQ self-defence classes and a lesbians picnic.<\/p>\n<p>Inner West Council is expected to next week rubber-stamp a recommendation to deny a $14,000 funding request from Royal Prince Alfred Hospital\u2019s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.<br \/>\nThe funds would have paid for one specialist chair for breastfeeding mothers and four infant resuscitators.<br \/>\nReema El Qassem with her 13-month-old daughter &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":8595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[621,490,11],"tags":[1159,1610],"class_list":["post-8594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-slider","category-world","tag-lgbtiq","tag-the-aids-council"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8594"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8596,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8594\/revisions\/8596"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}