Multicultural Centre for Women’s Health is pleased to share our 2020/2021 Pre-Budget Submission to the Victorian government, outlining the actions the Victorian government needs to take to achieve an equitable recovery from the pandemic for all Victorians, including over one million migrant and refugee women living in Victoria.
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the inequalities migrant women continue to experience accessing timely and appropriate in-language health information, finding culturally responsive services and achieving equitable health and wellbeing outcomes.
Our direct work with migrant women and their families in the Melbourne public housing estates and other key suburbs, demonstrates that even in a short time the right approach to providing in-language COVID-19 information, makes a real and lasting difference to health outcomes.
We are calling on the Victorian government to honour its commitment to equity for all Victorians and invest in the wellbeing of migrant women, who have been disproportionately impacted by the virus, while working in many of the essential services that have seen us through the pandemic, and yet are still missing out on the timely multilingual health information and support they deserve.
We invite everyone to share this document with your local representatives and share our vision for a heathier future for all Victorians.