Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Kindness Shake Co-Founder Ben Poveda Alfonso is helping make the lives of international people in the NT easier - and is spreading the word at this weekend's Kindness Festival

Transcript

Kindness Shake Co-Founder Ben Poveda Alfonso is helping make the lives of international people in the NT easier - and is spreading the word at this weekend's Kindness Festival · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Well, my next guest.
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  Speaker 2: I met him a few years ago when I was
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  Speaker 2: m seeing something for Charlesdowen University.
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  Speaker 1: He does some phenomenal work around the Northern Territory.
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  Speaker 2: His name is Ben Pervader Alfonso and he is the
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  Speaker 2: founder I believe of the kindness Shay, good morning to you.
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  Speaker 1: Ben, good morning, cardy to you, and troll your listeners.
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  Speaker 1: It's great to be here. And yes, you pronounce the
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  Speaker 1: name really well well.
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  Speaker 2: I try my best to remember these things when I
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  Speaker 2: am seeing event. I always make sure that I that
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  Speaker 2: I get the pronunciation right, and then I try to
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  Speaker 2: make sure I remember it. But then I met you
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  Speaker 2: a few years ago when I was m seeing an
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  Speaker 2: event for Charles Dowen University raising money for international students,
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  Speaker 2: and I was really taken by how positive you are,
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  Speaker 2: you know, the wonderful things that you do within the community.
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  Speaker 2: So it made sense to me then when we were
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  Speaker 2: going through the COVID pandemic, that you were front and
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  Speaker 2: center trying to help other international students. And I know
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  Speaker 2: that you've you have graduated, but trying to help international
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  Speaker 2: students through that pandemic because I really weren't getting a
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  Speaker 2: lot of support at that time were I That.
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  Speaker 3: Is correct, Kerry, and thank you so much for appreciating that. Yeah,
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  Speaker 3: it's been an awesome journey in Australia. It's been now
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  Speaker 3: seven years since I arrived all the way from Colombia,
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  Speaker 3: and yet you're right. I graduated in twenty nineteen, but
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  Speaker 3: I will never forget where I come from. Met so
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  Speaker 3: many really good friends and people in the industry and
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  Speaker 3: students who only want to support the community. So, of course,
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  Speaker 3: when the pandemic hit our community, the international student community
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  Speaker 3: hit really really hard. Students lost their jobs, students lost
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  Speaker 3: their source of income. They were commentary in public where
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  Speaker 3: students were told it was time to go home. Some
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  Speaker 3: of the financial support that was available for some people
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  Speaker 3: wasn't available for them. So what better response to bring
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  Speaker 3: our community together through the kind of shake which basically
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  Speaker 3: just brought local businesses who actually had to let some
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  Speaker 3: of their students go in the hospitality industry but wanted
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  Speaker 3: to support the community providing free meals.
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  Speaker 1: We connected with Charles Owen.
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  Speaker 3: University, we connected with Foodbank, with Red Cross, with everyone
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  Speaker 3: providing free meals for everyone who needed a hand. And
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  Speaker 3: since then in April twenty twenty, it's just been evolving.
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  Speaker 3: The advocacy and the message has been out there and
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  Speaker 3: we're just so glad to be in a place like
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  Speaker 3: the Territory where everyone puts a hand up to support
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  Speaker 3: us every time we've needed.
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  Speaker 1: It's been a challenge.
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  Speaker 3: In two years, it's looking better and will continue to
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  Speaker 3: work hard to make it better and better.
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  Speaker 2: Then. You know, for those out there listening who maybe
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  Speaker 2: don't know a huge amount about what the Kindness Shake is,
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  Speaker 2: explain it to that.
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  Speaker 1: Sure, sure, let me get my pitch right.
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  Speaker 3: The kind of Check is a multi award not for
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  Speaker 3: profit organization and charity that provides support and assistance to
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  Speaker 3: international students and temporary visa holders in order to facilitate
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  Speaker 3: personal and professional growth through three meals like I mentioned earlier,
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  Speaker 3: but also now we have in probability workshops, well being programs,
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  Speaker 3: social events and cultural festival. So although we started providing
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  Speaker 3: free meals, didn't stop us there. We continue listening to
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  Speaker 3: the community, We continue talking to the industry and finding
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  Speaker 3: ways us to show the importance of international students in
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  Speaker 3: Australia and the great things that we bring to this
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  Speaker 3: community being population growth, economic prosperity, cultural diversity and contributing
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  Speaker 3: to our socially in rich territory.
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  Speaker 2: And Ben, I think that, you know, realistically, what COVID
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  Speaker 2: also demonstrated to us is how integral those international students
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  Speaker 2: actually are in so many other sectors as well within
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  Speaker 2: the Northern territory. You know, we caught up just a
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  Speaker 2: short time ago with Alex Bruce from Hospitality into and
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  Speaker 2: he spoke about you know, he spoke about just that,
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  Speaker 2: and and you know of course that now are look
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  Speaker 2: at doing online and the international students are going to
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  Speaker 2: be able to be part of hopefully making it a
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  Speaker 2: little bit easier. But I do think that COVID taught
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  Speaker 2: us how important those international students are within the territory's community.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely one hundred percent.
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  Speaker 3: The international education industry KATY was the four largest export
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  Speaker 3: in Australian twenty nineteen billions of dollars that people don't
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  Speaker 3: usually realize because we alsually focus in calling gas right,
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  Speaker 3: but international education is the largest was one of the
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  Speaker 3: largest exports, and just in the territory it supports hundreds
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  Speaker 3: of jobs. Each international student brings over forty thousand dollars
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  Speaker 3: per year to the economy.
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  Speaker 1: And obviously we're obviously today.
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  Speaker 3: Talking about the announcement with hospitality and Tea and the
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  Speaker 3: anti government about the RSA online which is especially focused
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  Speaker 3: on the hospitality and retail industry. However, international students are
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  Speaker 3: not just hospitality workers and retail workers. We're talking about
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  Speaker 3: our next We're talking about our next doctors, engineers, accountants,
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  Speaker 3: you name it.
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  Speaker 1: So it only makes sense.
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  Speaker 3: For us to talk about it, to support them, to
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  Speaker 3: find ways to continue welcoming them and not just bringing
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  Speaker 3: them to the country, but finding ways to retain them
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  Speaker 3: in the territory because we don't want them to be
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  Speaker 3: here supported to have a life, to invest time and
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  Speaker 3: resources and then move interstate once they're ready to support
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  Speaker 3: our community professional.
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  Speaker 2: I want to keep them here were able to start now,
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  Speaker 2: Then tell me about the festival that's coming up. It
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  Speaker 2: sounds incredibly exciting. Tell us a little bit about it
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  Speaker 2: and how people can get involved.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, we're really excited about our second year. The Kindest
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  Speaker 3: Festival twenty twenty two is happening this Saturday, twenty fifth
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  Speaker 3: of Juna the Darwin Water from from four to ten pm.
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  Speaker 3: Is an event for everyone in the territory who is
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  Speaker 3: interested to learn and embrace diversity and importance of international
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  Speaker 3: students and multicultural communities in Australia. So we will have
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  Speaker 3: thousands of attendees life we did last year. We have
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  Speaker 3: seven different experience zones with over thirty performances from twelve
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  Speaker 3: different countries. Will have seven international food stalls, twenty five
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  Speaker 3: multicultural and exhibition stalls. We will also introduce our Kindness
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  Speaker 3: Social Club is how we called it, but it's basically
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  Speaker 3: a bier garden where parties will be able to enjoy
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  Speaker 3: a drink while watching the performance but also watching their
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  Speaker 3: kids and children who will be playing on our new
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  Speaker 3: Paering Zoo which is called Animal kind Of. We will
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  Speaker 3: have guinea pigs, we will have bunnies, we will have
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  Speaker 3: little obviously dogs cats for kids to play around. And
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  Speaker 3: the highlight also will be a fashion parade starting at
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  Speaker 3: six pm Multicultural Fashion parade showcasing the great things are international.
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  Speaker 1: So let's bring now if we want to come along?
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  Speaker 2: Way is it going today? What time did I need
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  Speaker 2: to get there?
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  Speaker 1: Sure?
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  Speaker 3: Saturday twenty fifth of June This Saturday from four pm
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  Speaker 3: at the Daring Water from Pressing.
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  Speaker 1: It's going to be an event not to miss out.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, it's going to be fantastic. Ben it is lovely
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  Speaker 2: to speak to you this morning. I think you just
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  Speaker 2: use enthusiasm and positivity, which is so wonderful to see.
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  Speaker 2: It's an absolute pleasure to have you in the studio.
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  Speaker 2: I think it's such an impressive young man and we
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  Speaker 2: really appreciate you taking the time to come in to
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  Speaker 2: tell us more about the Kindness Shake and also indeed
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  Speaker 2: the festival that's happening. So good on you and the
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  Speaker 2: wonderful little team that you've got behind you.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you so much, Katie. It means a lot to
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  Speaker 3: be here. It means a lot too for that to
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  Speaker 3: come from you and the industry. We're really excited about
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  Speaker 3: what's been happening. We have an awesome team of volunteers
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  Speaker 3: who volunteer every single day to support the community, including me.
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  Speaker 3: We don't get paid for what we do. We do
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  Speaker 3: it all through passion and kindness. So it's great to
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  Speaker 3: be here and I'm sure I'll be back soon.
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  Speaker 2: Oh good on you, Ben. Thank you so much for
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  Speaker 2: your time this morning. The founder of course of the
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  Speaker 2: Kindness Shake, thanks so much for your time and we'll
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  Speaker 2: talk to you again very soon.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks, thank you.