By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
VITAL facts on English classes are fingertips away for asylum seekers in the south-east.
The newly-launched English for Asylum Seekers’ Network app answers a crying need for an accessible up-to-date list of the scores of English-language class tutors and providers in Greater Dandenong.
The app was developed mainly by volunteers at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre and led by project manager Andrea Kenny over the past six months.
Ms Kenny adapted a schools app template for an easy-to-use list for students, tutors and class providers.
It lists classes by location and by day of the week, with individualised maps and photos to help find the venues.
The information is thoughtfully translated into a host of languages with details on class costs, class levels, child care, website links and contacts.
There are several handy applications for this app. If there’s a last-minute class time-change or cancellation, students can be sent notifications on their phone.
Suitable alternative classes can also be found in seconds, if necessary.
When time-tabling, providers can look up class times across the region to ensure there are no clashes.
Ms Kenny has further volunteered to keep the app’s listings up to date, and to send out timely notifications.
ASRC training co-ordinator Simon Dalton said no one had the time to put such a handy resource together until Ms Kenny’s intervention.
“A lot of our clients have phones, and their phones are their life-savers.
“They allow them to get in touch with their families back home, on plans that allow them the maximum time to speak to their families.”
Mr Dalton said in the past, the task of keeping clients posted on their classes was “a bit of a mess”.
“There was just so many people and information changed so often – we needed to be digital.”
Tutor Nora McClosky had called for the co-ordination of the region’s hodgepodge of English classes for the past 10 years.
“We’re making history,” she ebulliently told the launch party.
She described the app as an important “first step”.
There was talk of Monash Health developing a more comprehensive – and expensive – app in the next two years, listing all asylum seeker services in the region.
The EAS Network app is available at the App Store (Apple) or Play Store (Android).
