A pig named Wilma has connected two local community groups and brought a number of rewards for both parties.
Wilma was born at the Murdi Paaki Regional Enterprise Corporation (MPREC) nursery in May this year and has unofficially been adopted by the LiveBetter team.
The Murdi Paaki Regional Enterprise Corporation helps job seekers gain skills, look for and find work, and contribute to their community at the same time.
Their garden nursery off the Hillston Road is one of their community project success stories.
LiveBetter delivers aged, carer, child and family, disability and mental health services to individuals and families in regional Australia.
The LiveBetter Cobar staff are always looking for different ways to engage their clients in the community and teach them life skills.
LiveBetter support worker Elaine Jermyn said their group has been going to the Murdi Paaki nursery to pick vegetables and help feed the animals for some time.
“We come and pick vegetables and cook them up at work. We try to get our clients involved in sustainable things,” she said.
“Murdi Paaki do vegies out here and we were also interested in getting some garden beds for the centre.”
Elaine said their clients have also been learning about recycling and part of that was how to recycle their food scraps.
Murdi Paaki activity supervisor Brett Miller said they were pleased to welcome the LiveBetter staff and clients to visit the nursery and recently decided to ‘donate’ Wilma for adoption.
Brett explained that Wilma will stay where she is at the nursery along with her mum, five brothers and sisters and two of her sister’s piglets as part of the nursery’s breeding program.
The LiveBetter crew will continue to visit and bring their scraps while the Murdi Paaki team will clean up and care for Wilma and the rest of her pig family.
Brett said it’s been good for the LiveBetter clients to visit the nursery to interact with staff and the animals.
The group has made a commitment to visit the nursery a couple of times a week and their visits have helped to give clients more self confidence.
“There’s a fence between them and some of them aren’t too brave (and I’m one of them),” Elaine said.
“Murdi Paaki has done a great job out here and Brett is so approachable,” she said.
LiveBetter client Gail Higgins is among the group who visit and feed Wilma each week.
“I like coming out and seeing Wilma, she’s pretty nice,” Gail said.
“She’s pretty clean and she doesn’t smell.”
