KAREN refugees were last week introduced to opportunities that living in Loddon could give in their new country.
Loddon Murray Community Leadership Program graduate Jan Pagliaro teamed with Bendigo Community Health to take 50 refugees on a tour of the region on Friday.
The itinerary included Inglewood Eucalyptus Distillery Museum, Saluté Oliva at Boort, Red Dog Chillies at Fernihurst, a Lions Club barbecue and tour a Bridgewater farm and finished the afternoon fishing by the Loddon River.
“Karen people have lived in the forest for most of their lives,” said community health services Ku Htee. “They love nature, so part of this trip is also about exploring nature again.” 
Jan hopes the day, that included meeting Loddon Mayor Dan Straub, will expose Karen people to the possibilities of the Loddon Valley with more affordable house prices, agricultural employment opportunities, and a peaceful, laid-back lifestyle.
She said the tour was inspired by the remarkable impact of new arrivals on other Victorian rural towns.
“I took the idea from what’s happened in Nhill and Pyramid Hill,” Jan says. “Those towns were being decimated by an ageing population and no new families coming in, so they got together as a community and invited in new arrivals.
“There are now Filipino people living in Pyramid Hill and Karen people in Nhill. They’ve saved the local football club, the businesses and schools. So I thought, why can’t we do that closer to home?”
Bendigo has a large Karen refugee community, people who fled from insurgency on the Myanmar–Thailand border.