Frequently Asked Questions - Miscellaneous

Street crimes are a world-wide phenomenon. Incidents of mugging and vandalism are present everywhere including in Australia. Unfortunately some stupid people have decided to target Indians for umpteen reasons ranging from opportunity to colour. Having said that, majority of such incidents are specific to time and place.

For most part, if you reach home before 8:00 PM you may be safe. We have not heard of many cases of violent attacks before 8:00 PM. There are over 100,000 Indians in Melbourne, so don't worry too much. As long as you can afford to stay in a posh locality and not work in jobs where you have to work odd hours then you are 'statistically' safer.

You may be aware about our ongoing campaign around improving safety and security for Indians. We will continue to work until such time that complaints of Indians are heard, they are treated with dignity and every Indian feels safe.

FISA is a student organisation - run by students for students. In fact 100% of our members are volunteers and most of the time struggling to support themselves.

One need to be a licensed agent with some very complex licensing requirements to lend money. FISA does not have the capability of the license to lend money. We would also strongly recommend you to stay away from short-term money lenders and other non-bank lenders for as long as possible as their interest rates are much higher.

In most cases, some Christian groups such as The Salvation Army (popularly known as the 'Salvos') or the St Vincent De Paul Society (popularly known as 'Vinnies') may be able to help. You can also write to your education institute directly and request a fee extension or an installment plan.

Please contact us in case you feel that your application has not been dealt with properly by your education provider. We may allocate a volunteer to look into the matter, subject to availability of volunteers.