With special guests:
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Peter Symes & Robert Stoker
… in conversation with Bill Kable
Jeremiah Chapter 20 Verse 18. For those of us not familiar with that extract from the Bible it is relevant to today’s show as our guest Peter Symes points out. Jeremiah House 2018 is not a religious institution but it is doing work that many Christians would like to claim as being core to their life principles.
Peter and Robert realised that there were no shelters in Bundaberg that catered for men and their children when a crisis in the home occurred. Surprisingly there are none in Australia as a whole. If a man arrived at a shelter having been forced out of home what would happen is that the family would be split. The children would be sent to one institution and if a shelter were available the man would be sent there on his own. Just when the father and his family most needed to support each other they would be forcibly separated.
Peter has a background as a registered nurse and a wide variety of experience in the workforce. Robert also is widely experienced with a personal history of family breakup. Their admirable response to the lack of any shelters for men in this situation was to begin a project so that there will be somewhere for men and their families to go.
Not only that but skills will be taught at the proposed shelter to allow these men to get on with their lives. Robert tells us that sometimes men who have been in families will be sadly lacking in some of the basics of everyday life as for example cooking, making up budgets and how to keep children occupied.
Already Peter and Robert have available suitable premises in Bundaberg and through generous donations steady progress is being made on achieving their ambitions. The starting point is to realise that although there are frequent references to the shortage of women’s shelters, the number of men’s shelters for domestic violence is nil.
Peter and Robert are at pains to emphasise that their aim is not to cut into the number of women’s shelters or in any way to criticise women but we have to do something about the other half of our society who cannot always look after themselves.
It is always inspiring to hear about people taking on a challenge like this and we at Dads on the Air fully support the work of Peter and Robert. We hope to check back in the future to see how this project is taking shape and in the meantime we wish them every success. For anyone wanting to make a donation to this very worthwhile project please go to the website of Jeremiah House 2018. And you can also follow them on Facebook.
Song selection by our guests: What About Me by Moving Pictures
Note: This program is an encore presentation of the one aired on 2 May 2019.