Family violence affects all communities. However, women from culturally diverse backgrounds often face additional barriers to seeking help. This can include language barriers, visa concerns, social isolation, and cultural stigma.
For many women, the first step in seeking help is confiding in a trusted community member.
How Project Sitara works
Project Sitara provides information and tools to community leaders, so that they can provide guidance to women in need of support and connect them with support services.
The project supports community leaders to talk to others in their communities in ways that are culturally safe, and that increase understanding of what family violence is and where to seek support.
'Sitara' which means 'star' in Hindi/Urdu, reflects the project's mission to serve as a guiding light for women who may not know where to turn when facing family violence.
Project Sitara is a community-based project created by GenWest’s Multilingual Health Education Team and launched in 2024. The project was co-designed with a pilot group of elder Indian women, recognising their profound influence as cultural custodians and their unique role in passing on values of sharing and interdependence with younger generations.
Through seven Hindi-language sessions, participants receive culturally sensitive training and resources, empowering them to identify, prevent, and respond to family violence. A key component of this training, Sitara's 'magic ingredient,' is its deep cultural understanding, which equips leaders with the ability to challenge harmful gender norms, understand the root causes of violence, and connect people to appropriate services. As of May 2025, 20 community leaders will have completed training.
The project is culturally adaptable for diverse linguistic populations and we look forward to building on its success and rolling the project out to a new regions in Victoria.
“If we see someone in trouble, we will help them, educate them by differentiating between right and wrong and informing them about the services that can support them in their tough times.”
Participant
“We will apply the learnings from this project in our communities by educating our families and the men at our home, talk to other ladies in our social circle and educate them.”
Participant
News and updates
Project Sitara the winning pitch in Safe + Equal's annual Partners in Prevention Pitch event
The project was also the winning entry at Safe + Equal's annual Partners in Prevention Pitch event, which showcases new and emerging ideas about what is needed to prevent family and gender-based violence.
GenWest's Project Sitara has received additional funding to be rolled out in Ballarat.
GenWest is expanding Project Sitara, partnering with Ballarat Regional Multicultural Council to reach Ballarat, and planning further growth across the state. With a vision to empower diverse multicultural communities across Australia, we aim to develop our training package in multiple languages. We are dedicated to forging partnerships with organizations in the family violence sector to create 'an army of community champions.'
“Practitioners with deep cultural understanding developed Project Sitara, recognizing the vital, yet often unseen and unsupported, role of trusted community members in women's lives. Designed to bridge prevention and response, Project Sitara honours cultural values and empowers women as both beneficiaries and drivers of change. It is a step towards mobilising an army of champions leading the way to create a society free from gender-based violence”
Shweta Kawatra Dakin, Manager of Resilient Communities at GenWest
