Honours for stand-up citizens
TWO individuals whose work in their chosen humanitarian fields has done much to aid the plights of those less fortunate both at home and abroad have been recognised with this year’s Ron Castan Awards.
CEO of the Shalom Institute and Shalom College Dr Hilton Immerman OAM is the winner of the 2014 Ron Castan Humanitarian Award, inaugurated by Stand Up last year in honour of the late Ron Castan – a distinguished barrister and human rights advocate who made an enormous contribution to the Australian public in general and the Indigenous community in particular.
Fittingly, the accolade was bestowed on Immerman largely for his engagement with the Indigenous community, namely through the Shalom Gamarada Indigenous Scholarship Program, which sees Indigenous students through tertiary degrees.
“In Australia, there remains a shameful gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians,” Immerman told The AJN.
“This will only change through education … Our scholarship program is having a direct impact on increasing the number of Indigenous professionals.”
Indeed, from one scholarship in 2005, the program now has 28 in 2014, enabling the students to live on campus at Shalom College and receive support along the road to graduation.
“Having left an apartheid South Africa as a young man, I feel strongly about the need to oppose racism and discrimination in all its forms and also to try to make a meaningful difference to the lives of the disadvantaged,” Immerman said, adding that the core Jewish value of tikkun olam is a driving force behind his efforts.
Meanwhile, Emanuel School alumna and school nurse Genna Radnan was awarded the Ron Castan Young Humanitarian Award for the extensive humanitarian efforts she has undertaken in Kenya and elsewhere in Africa.
In 2010, she founded Gennarosity Abroad, a not-for-profit organisation which aims to provide education, skills and vocational training, health, literacy, clean water, employment, aid relief and support to populations in Africa, particularly in Kenya.
The organisation’s current project, Grandma Jenny’s Training Centre, offers skills training and services to illiterate women and girls.
“I am humbled by the award, which reflects the incredible and inspirational achievements of Ron Castan himself and his empathetic and gracious persona,” Radnan, 23, said.
Immerman similarly made mention of the award’s namesake.
“As I knew of and greatly admired the late Ron Castan – a remarkable Australian and Jew – I felt both awed and humbled,” he said of receiving the honour,” he said.
The awards were presented at a ceremony held in Sydney last week. They are set to alternate between Sydney and Melbourne each year.
PHOEBE ROTH
From left: Genna Radnan, Stand Up CEO Gary Samowitz, and Hilton Immerman.
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