Sydney's Tamil Safe Space: A Community oasis

Tamil Safe Space (TSS), an initiative by Tamils living in Sydney, was launched on Saturday, August 3, 2024, in Wentworthville, NSW. Tamil Safe Space offers a free drop-in environment for Tamil community members facing emotional distress or suicidal crisis, where they can receive support from trained Tamil peer support volunteers. The space aims to provide individuals in distress an alternative to emergency departments, offering non-clinical and culturally safe support to help alleviate their distress.

Dr Iyngaranathan Selvaratnam, Kalyanai Inpakumar and Dr Thava Seelan from TSS committee shared the reasons and objectives behind the initiative. Councillor Lisa Lake (Mayor), Dr Hugh McDermott MP (NSW - Prospect), Dr Andrew Charlton MP (Federal -Parramatta) and Jon Eddy from Roses in the Ocean shared their views on the TSS initiative.

The Tamil Safe Space operates on First Friday night of each month from 6pm-9pm at Wentworthville Community Centre, 2 Lane Street, Wentworthville, NSW 2145.

——————————————————————————————

Listen to SBS Tamil at 12 noon on

SBS South Asian

channel on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays & 8pm on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays on SBS Radio 2. Find your area’s radio frequency by visiting our 

tune in page

. For listening on DAB+ 

digital radio

, search for ‘SBS Radio’.