Tuesday, 9 September 2025

Our Village

Georgie PURCELL (Northern Victoria) (18:35): (1924) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Children and is in relation to the charity, Our Village. Last month I met with the CEO of Our Village, Ruth Holdaway. Ruth told me about the amazing work Our Village does collecting and rehoming essential baby and children’s items. They do this by partnering with social services and maternal and child health nurses to connect families looking to donate goods with families who urgently need these essential items. Last year they rehomed over 70,000 pre-loved babies’ and children’s items to over 20,000 of our state’s most vulnerable babies and children. Critically, this also meant that over 200,000 kilograms of waste was diverted from landfill. They have managed to do this with no government support, relying on generous donations and the power of more than 2500 volunteers. This is exactly the kind of critical community initiative that the government should put their support behind. Too many families struggle to make sure their newborns have all they need. A child’s first 2000 days impacts the rest of their entire life. It is vital that they have absolutely everything that they need in order to thrive. As their website proudly states:

It takes a village to raise a child and save the planet. This is the power of Our Village.

By 2030, Our Village hopes to be able to support every Victorian child up to the age of six that needs them, but they cannot do this alone. So the action that I seek is for the minister to meet with the Our Village CEO, Ruth Holdaway, to hear about how the government can support their work in ensuring that no Victorian child goes without.