OUR STORY
People Helping People International

We are the heartbeat and voices of our local neighbourhoods. We come from all walks of life, educational, and socioeconomic backgrounds. We are People Helping People (PHP) throughout our own communities who, till date help each other by way of our own pocketbooks and kindness. Our PHP ethos of “giving where you live without judgement” and “changing the world for one person” has inspired many. We are proud to see and know the many lives we have touched not only in Australia but worldwide. International students we have met along the way have adopted our ethos in the countries they have returned to. Many have started their own movements of changing lives in their neighbourhoods. We watched as others have adopted and adapted our concept.

HISTORY.

People often ask how People Helping People started ...

This is truly a story of What one Little Dog can do.

Not dissimilar to others in our diverse CALD community, we arrived in this community stripped down of previous identity and voice, devoid of trust, mentally and financially destitute. We were nobody with nothing but memories and stories that to the average person would be unbelievable. If not for the evidence to back it up, I too would not believe it. That indeed is a story for another time. Yet it gives you some context of how PHP came to be.

We had virtually nothing. No car, no money, we knew no one in this neighbourhood, we did not have the ability nor knowledge to navigate even getting food to feed ourselves. Filled with guilt and shame of our circumstances, we became and were invisible nobodies. Keeping to ourselves.

Piper was the one that inspired and started what came to be known as People Helping People. If not for her kindness, drive, and spirit, it would have never come to be. Piper would explore our small complex. She would sit in the car port for hours, watching and listening to the comings and goings. Piper was an insistent, if not a downright bossy, little dog. Her perception of NEED, hers, or others, was beyond anything I have experienced before nor probably will again.

As time passed, Piper created her own strong bonds. It started with 3 of my immediate elderly neighbours, Nola, Faye & Ron, who I shall ever hold with the highest respect and regard. Piper would literally knock on their doors with her nose until they answered. As if she instinctively was checking on them daily. It became part of her routine and my link to the outside world as I was too fearful and paranoid to wander too far from our personal space.

Piper was a spirit and life force that children and people from all walks of life were drawn too. When I would let Piper out in the front yard, it seemed as if people gravitated to her. It was her kindness and joy that brought people into our lives. The neighbourhood children and elderly would start knocking on the door to ask if Piper could come out to play or to sit.

And so, it began.

Community Connection
Piper navigated the world around us with ease, dragging me along with her. She spread kindness and joy to everyone she encountered. She crossed all barriers of ethnicity, cultures, language, socioeconomic status, or health issues.

Reaching Out
Having, a long list of physical and mental health issues and disabilities, was and is still a big barrier for me. Being in a country that is not one’s home country is challenging. What is meant in conversation and how things work here, may be well known to natural born residents but to migrants, even English speaking, is very, very different. The whole system, laws and thinking is different. Down to the simplest of how to’s or what is.

In trying to find my way, I stumbled upon Carol Messenger, who through the goodness of her heart brought me a food package. I shall always be grateful to her because in that moment, her generosity meant far more than she could ever imagine. Her kindness sparked an inner flame again for me and inspired me to pay forward her random act of kindness.

Giving Back
When finding a trolley, that had been tattered and thrown to the curb; it was as if it was placed there for Pip and me. It fit our new chapter of life. Poverty and food insecurity. Through Piper’s relationships, I discovered, we were not the only ones. Making a pot of soup was gratitude and love that needed to be shared among others struggling as well.

Building Community
When COVID hit our communities, then the lockdown happened - for those of us that were already struggling with food insecurity and disabilities it was a very scary time for many reasons. There seemed to be so much help being talked about but where was it for our elderly, disabled, and CALD neighbourhood. It became survival for many of us. Those relationships that Piper had formed became the building blocks of hope and survival. That tattered wagon became a lifeline for many of us.

I would make a soup or broth and share; in turn we became an underground lifeline for each other. Neighbours taking a portion and if possible donating back anything that might be left in their cupboards that could be used to make whatever we could to help each other. The COVID lock-down evened the playing field for many who had never known such adversity. That adversity not only shook the very foundations of our community BUT it also created an unbreakable bond of friendships and commitments among us. The ultimate measure in those moments was NOT where we had stood in our moments of comfort but where we stood in the times of this great challenge.

Who are we? We are the heartbeats of our Neighbourhoods; we are and shall always remain People Helping People.

Helping one person may not change the world but it can change the world for one person.

Oh, what one little dog inspired.

- Judy Potter, Founding Director of People Helping People