Adelaide’s Hyde Park College of Skin and Body Therapy has won a global award for Social Responsibility for helping refugees and victims of domestic violence.
College owner Dianne Miles was presented with the award at the CIBTAC (The Confederation of International Beauty Therapy and Cosmetology) 2019 Awards dinner in London.
For the past three years Hyde Park College has worked with the Australian Refugee Association to provide full tuition scholarships to refugees from Nepal, Bhutan, Malawi, Sierra Leone and Iran.
In 2018 the College also worked with Catherine House, a refuge for domestic violence victims, to provide a scholarship to one of their clients.
Australian Refugee Association client services manager Sandra Dzafic said the college has shown an immense understanding for refugees “by recognising a need for financial as well as emotional support”.
“This support, played a significant role in enabling our clients to push through some challenging life and family situations caused by a number of settlement obstacles.”
Likewise, Catherine House CEO Louise Miller Frost said the college scholarship was “a life-changing opportunity” for the charity’s client.
“Catherine House clients are women experiencing homelessness,” she said.
“The ability to earn a living is fundamental to helping women to move on from their experience of homelessness. Beauty Therapy had always been her dream, but raising children, a violent relationship and poverty had prevented her from pursuing her dreams.
“She was overwhelmed by the generosity of spirit shown to her and the opportunity to learn professional skills …. The experience of being believed in, and coached to achieve, has been transformative.
“As a result of Dianne’s generous spirit, our client now has international qualifications, and a new life and a career.”
Dianne says it has been gratifying for all at the College to see how the training changes the lives of not only the refugee students but also their families and communities – especially when they gain employment in the beauty industry.
“The program also has a profound effect on the staff and fee-paying students,” she says.
“It expands their view on others who can sometime struggle in our world and deserve a helping hand when and wherever possible.
“It is fundamentally what the beauty therapy industry is all about ‒ nurturing, caring for and helping others, whether they are clients or fellow humans.”
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