Jannawi’s history is testament to the commitment and innovation that is a hallmark of many community based non gorvernment organisations. The following extract is from a history of the Wiley Park Centre (as Jannawi was formerly known) that was published in 1989.

“Late in 1975 also, the Lakemba Methodist Church, which was then working towards joing with Congregational and Presbyterian Churches to form the Uniting Church, joined with the Rotary Club in its effort for abusing families and provided a surplus weatherboard church in Wiley Park. This was in the area of Sydney with the highest identified incidence of child abuse at that time, which we now see as having been largely due to the local effort to identify such children, and a meeting of interested people in the old church in December 1975 decided to join together to form an Association to develop and manage the service. That Association was called The Wiley Park Special Pre-School Association and a Committee was formed of Rotarians, Methodists, and other interested professionals.”

Jannawi Puppets

During the 1990’s Jannawi developed and delivered training about child abuse and DV using the Jannawi Puppets. Tapes, training materials and resources featuring the puppets were used by organisations around Australia.

In 2005 the board took the decision to discontinue the Jannawi Puppets as a training resource because the organisation needed to direct all available resources to maintaing directed services to clients.