Dive to Thrive - A 71 year old, a 12 year old, and 3 Iraqi refugees take a giant leap

News article thanks to the Toowoomba Chronicle newspaper

A team of 12 brave Toowoomba locals, including a 12-year-old, a 71-year-old, and three refugees from Iraq will be jumping out of a plane to raise funds for You Belong.

For Toowoomba’s Rachael Carter, skydiving was definitely not a bucket list item; it wasn’t anywhere on her life agenda.

But when she casually suggested skydiving to raise funds and awareness for refugees in the Toowoomba community, the overwhelming response she received changed her mind in a heartbeat.

A group of 12 brave You Belong team members will be leaping out of plane to raise funds and awareness for their organisation, which helps new refugees in Toowoomba integrate into the community smoothly.

You Belong regional director Mrs Carter said she originally suggested skydiving to the team simply as an example of the type of attention-grabbing action they needed to get people on board.

What she wasn’t expecting was for the team to get on board straight away.

Next weekend, the team will be travelling to the Gold Coast to take the plunge with a $50,000 fundraising goal in mind.

You Belong started with Tim and Sarah Buxton, who lived and worked on the front lines in Iraq helping refugees who escaped from ISIS.

In 2017 they returned to Australia and started You Belong, and a year later Toowoomba opened up its own branch.

Mrs Carter said she had seen first-hand the struggles refugees go through when it came to integrating into a new society, and felt drawn to the cause immediately.

“I was working in the community with the people and I could just see that their ability to find their place in Toowoomba was hindered by language barriers and hindered by things like the unavailability of groups that provided for social inclusion,” she said.

“I’d be in their homes and I could see that they were really keen to meet people and make friends and learn English.

“It was heartbreaking to see how difficult it was for them and how lonely and isolated some of them were.

“I just felt a strong call I guess to meet some of that need.”

Locals can get on board by sponsoring a team member and donating money, which will go straight into the programs and services at You Belong.

But the goal behind the fundraiser goes so much further than just raising money.

“We want to raise money for the operations side of what You Belong does so we can continue doing the work we’re doing,” Mrs Carter said.

“But also we really want to raise awareness of who is in our city and who is in our country, and to get people on board with welcoming their newest neighbours into their own city.

“If we don’t get involved then integration won’t happen, if we haven’t got people committed to making it happen on the established Australians side.

“We can’t leave it all up to the refugees to integrate without our support.”

The team have raised $7000 so far.

Support the dive team’s efforts and make a donation to You Belong