Keeping a Healthy Perspective on Community

Funnily enough for a banking institution, it’s not always about the dollars and decimal points at South West Credit. We are a member-owned cooperative founded on good intentions and good will. Every decision we need to make about what we do is made right here, in our Warrnambool branch. That’s why we believe we have a duty to work with the local community to improve it where and as we can.

It’s why the decision to donate two separate, health-related causes here in Warrnambool over recent weeks were relatively easy ones to make.

Funnily enough for a banking institution, it’s not always about the dollars and decimal points at South West Credit. We are a member-owned cooperative founded on good intentions and good will. Every decision we need to make about what we do is made right here, in our Warrnambool branch. That’s why we believe we have a duty to work with the local community to improve it where and as we can.

It’s why the decision to donate two separate, health-related causes here in Warrnambool over recent weeks were relatively easy ones to make.

The first contribution was a $60,000 donation to South West Healthcare’s Warrnambool Base Hospital Medical Equipment Appeal.

Allocated over three years, the funds are going to be used to purchase equipment as needs are identified by hospital officials. The first purchase is a hydraulic bath for the new paediatric unit. As a local, I was thrilled to see that the environment in which the staff at this hospital will deploy their craft now matches the level of care they provide.

Our second contribution was on a much smaller scale from a monetary sense but still vital to the life and livelihood of a dedicated community member, in Trina Cullen.

This Warrnambool mother was a year and a half ago diagnosed with a debilitating and rare genetic muscle disorder. Today, even holding a book on her own is exhausting. She is dependent on a constant oxygen supply and round-the-clock-care provided by her husband Stefan.

Access to this constant oxygen supply was becoming an issue for Trina when she couldn’t meet strict Government criteria to qualify for free oxygen. She would have been bedridden without this supply and, as Trina pointed out to us, at 43 years of age, she was far too young to be confined to such a life.

Trina’s situation – someone in need of assistance who has fallen through the cracks of mainstream funding or support requirements – was exactly what South West Credit’s Community@Heart fund was established for.

It’s less about ticking rigid boxes and more about doing something for a person who is truly in need. A donation of $1800 from our Communtiy@Heart fund has provided Trina with a portable oxygen concentration machine and a greater quality of life.

The heartfelt thank you letter from Trina, outlining the difference it had made to her family from a physical perspective, and the renewed sense of community they now have, reinforces that not only was this decision an easy one. 

It was also the right one

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