Local Stories

Since August 2022, Ballina Region for Refugees (BR4R) has resettled three refugee families in our region under the Community Refugee Integration and Settlement Pilot (CRISP) – two from Syria and one from Venezuela.  Two more families are arriving soon (see What we do: Community Settlement for an explanation of the CRISP program). These families come here through the UNHCR on Humanitarian Visas.

Each family is helped for up to 12 months by a Community Support Group (see Community Support Groups for an explanation of the ways in which they support the families).

The families have all experienced trauma, but have been incredibly generous and open in sharing their experiences of life before and since arriving in Australia. They were interviewed in June, 2023 by BR4R’s Publicity Coordinator.