NEWS
Ladies & Gentlemen,
I am delighted to have the opportunity to welcome everyone on behalf of the Board of AVEPA. Tonight, we aim to celebrate, and further AVEPA’s objectives, on behalf of you, Australia’s Vietnamese Community. We are pleased to be able to do this in an environment which enables everyone to enjoy all aspects of the evening: the dinner, the entertainment and the company of friends old & new.
Tonight is also an occasion to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the commencement of the Vietnamese community in Australia. Born out of crisis, so much has been achieved. The Vietnamese community has been through many ordeals during this period, to become established as a respected community of hard working people, and high academic achievers, committed to the welfare of its young people and their education. It is a respected community which has assisted many needy people during its development phase.
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| Emeritus Professor David Beanland |
AVEPA has been established to encourage and facilitate the development of young leaders in the Vietnamese community, who will become future leaders in the Australian community, and consequently enable the Australian Vietnamese community to become an even more highly respected component of the Australian Society.
It aims to do that by encouraging outstanding Vietnamese students to become leaders in their field, through modest financial support and mentoring. Scholarships are awarded to outstanding secondary school graduates, who have a clear focus on their future career, and who will benefit from financial assistance. The Board was able to provide significant support to 4 students entering university this year (2 from Melbourne and 2 from Sydney) and I am delighted that 3 are able to attend this evening. Please welcome: Thanh Hiền Vũ and Huyền Nguyễn from Melbourne and Matthew Chu from Sydney.
Our aim is to support 6 students in 2016: This requires a total of $30K. Tonight is clearly designated as a FUNDRAISING DINNER. It is our major appeal. We are dependent upon, and need, your generous contributions to enable us to realise our objective. Yes, some of the ticket money goes toward our program and our operational overheads are minimal as all our officers are volunteers. But this is not sufficient to achieve our objectives. All donations tonight go directly to the Scholarship program. On your table is a Form that enables you to pledge an appropriate donation. I would ask you to commit to a generous gift, and join my wife Heather and myself, who will also be doing so. On behalf of AVEPA I invite, request and implore everyone to use the form to commit to a donation which is significant for you.
Thank you for your anticipated support. Enjoy the evening. Celebrate generously!
