Online chatrooms

Images courtesy of Google Images

By an Indian student called Ms M (who prefered not to be named)
Recently I came to Australia from India to study RMIT's Bachelor of Marketing. I am aged 17 years. I was placed in RMIT Village where my parents and myself back in India was assured that I'd be safe.

Little did I know about the online world. Back in India where I lived there no such thing known as Internet. I lived in a rural village where there was no telephone line and no broadband.

In Australia I had just signed up to Facebook to connect with my friends and my family. And hopefully to meet some new people. A week later someone wanted to be friend me. An Indian guy who was in Australia supposedly a student at Melbourne University. He was studying commerce in the second year and wanted to mentor me. I thought well great. He supposedly had a part time business in which he owned. He said he lived in the city.

After a few chat sessions he wanted to take me out to dinner and to his place. He wanted my bank account details and so I gave it to him without thinking. He also wanted my address and my passport details and I gave those too.

We went to dinner in Lygon st and everything was going well. He had paid for me and got a taxi for us. I was supposed to be dropped home but the taxi went straight past the village. Instead it went straight to his house in Epping where he really lived. He lived with an older Australian guy and together they beat me and raped me. They also drugged me so that I couldn't call for help. They then stole all the money and hacked into my bank account.

In the morning when I woke up I started crying. I was driven back to the Village by then. I rang my parents and they became very worried for me. I was too scared to go to the police just in case they took my passport away. I didn't know of my rights back then.

In the end things got so bad that I ended up leaving and not finishing my course. A lesson to be learnt never ever accept friend requests from strangers. And don't ever provide your personal information to them. In fact leave it out on social networking sites such as Facebook.

Would you accept a friend request from a stranger?

International care service

There is a 24 hour, seven days a week International care service which assists students with issues that they face in Melbourne.

They can give student information on things like:
* Housing and your rights
* Legal services
* health services
* other specialist support services
* personal difficulties that you face as an International student

It is free for students to access and your details will be kept private and confidential.

Launched in 2009 this service is successful ever since.

At the Moreland international student seminar earlier this year I got to meet up with the lady that runs the service

Contact hours are:
Phone: 1800 056 449 (free call from landline phones)
E-mail: info@iscs.vic.gov.au
Drop-in to the office: Level 1, 19-21 Argyle Place South, Carlton 3053
Opening hours are Mon-Fri 9am-5pm.

$10 meals

As part of our Health and Human Development series

Images courtesy of Google images

So you are living in a share house and sharing with three to four other people. As a student you can't afford to spend lots and lots of money on food.

Here's a great idea, why not spend about $40 (as a household) on lunch and dinner each week and make things from scratch? That is provided that you have the essential things like eggs, milk, bread, butter and oil.

Chicken and pork is about $10 per tray (or whole chicken) at the supermarket.
Sauces such as Fish sauce is about $2 per bottle and you can use it many times.
Noodles is about $1-$2 per packet (don't buy the instant ones- they are more expensive)
Paste is about $0.99 each
Pasta is about $0.70-$2 each
Rice is about $2-$4 each (for 1 kg)
Look out for specials such as 2 packets for $4 of gravy.
Buy things on special
Buy fruit and veg that's in season.
Here are some meal ideas.

* Pasta
* Pork Stir fry
* Nasi Goreng
* Thai Green curry
* Meat balls
* Minestrone soup with lots and lots of vegetables.
* Tacos (you make it yourself)
* Fried rice
* Vegetarian Pad thai
* Rice balls (big ones)

Got any more ideas? Just leave us a comment below.

Eating my way around Footscray by Katherine

Footscray is known for the cheap and wonderful food. I used to visit it when I was in my early years at uni and didn't know any better about safety. Here I introduce some of the really great places that I have been to.

1) The Footscray market- here this market is in the heart of Footscray. I remembered visiting this small supermarket frequently as well as other places. Here they had bread rolls for $0.60 and fresh fruits and veg for just a few dollars per kg.

Footscray market- image courtesy of footscraylife.com.au

2) Nhu Lan and To's bakery- Here is where I bought my Bhanh mi and my salad breakfasts whilst rushing to the Footscray station in the mornings when I had no time and I was starving.  You order your Bhanh mi and salads at the counter and they will make it up for you freshly. All the foods were under $5.

Nhu Lan- courtesy of Urbanspoon.com

3) Hao Phong- this is a Vietnamese restaurant that I used to go to. They did quite a good pho (noodle soup) for about $9. Every time I went I used to just get this.

Hao Phong- images courtesy of Urbanspoon

4) Hien Vuong- this was also another pho place that I used to love. Its very close to Footscray station and here I got quite a decent serve of pho for under $10. I sometimes bought a three coloured drink for $3.50. There are two of them and I went to both of these in my early days.

Hien Vuong- image courtesy of Urbanspoon

So students if you have time particularly during the day time I suggest going to visit Footscray. But do be careful though and don't visit it alone as there are a few drug deals. It might be better just to go as a group. All the places listed above are right near the train station, but also trams and buses go past it too.

International students want more counseling

At the moment the counseling service is really stretched to the limit. There is a lot more work that the counseling service could do for students. Whilst they are a great resource there is more that they could do.

picture of a lonely student in need of counseling. Image by USAcademy- usacademy.collegenet.com

Australia educates about 228,000 international students per year. Yet they are made to feel like cash cows.

International students leave behind their family and their friends. Adjusting to a new life is problematic.  They have to adjust to uni as well as living away from home. Some students have suicidal thoughts.

Loneliness is the main problem that students face in Melbourne. This is a problem that cannot be solved by the University unless there is more funding.

One student who do not wished to be name said that "studying in Australia was more like being on vacation."
"I wanted to try new experiences that my parents would not allow such as being drunkenly and having lots and lots of sex. This in turn lead to a downfall in my results at RMIT Uni and lead me to being "at risk"".

Another student, Kai said that the experience of studying in Australia would be really lonely without the assistance of the buddy programs at uni.

Hence this has lead more problems with Gambling and unwanted sex. It also led to drunkeness on the streets.

Have your views about changed when you came to Australia? Tell us below.

Project O

Images courtesy of Flickr

Image courtesy of Facebook

Project O is a charity project run by an RMIT student club called PPIA. PPIA is an Indonesian club which assists new students to make friends through events and things.

Right now and for the last two years they are running a project called Project O. Project O aims to:
1. Support Indonesian children with special needs in attaining better future through education and learning programs.

2. Investing in proper education to maximize the potential of each individual with special needs in developing and entering the public world.

3.Create pathways for young Indonesians in Australia and the local communities to be the agents of change.

4. Deliver sustainable funding for school projects in Indonesia and provide the maximum educational opportunities for children with special needs.


This year their project is called Project O: Ignite. Its aims is to make the world a happier place by doing daily deeds. They aim to do this through many charity events.

Markit Market

Markit is on Sunday the 26th of May at the Atrium in Federation square.

It is another designer market. It is the same as the Big Design market, It is one designer market not to be missed featuring designers from all around Melbourne.

There will be homewares, fashion, jewellery and anything art related up for sale.

Do not miss it, even if you just want to admire the artworks.

You can also win prizes at the Markit Market just by subscribing to their mailing list or by liking them on Facebook.