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Press, 20 July 1979, Page 10

The Link Guidance Service held its first meeting this week for new settlers

and overseas residents to meet each other and New Zealanders. The multiilingual advisory service, run by four volunteers in Christchurch, provides interpreters who speak a total of 20 languages to help newcomers who are not fluent in English. In the photograph Mrs Kari Kerdemelidis (far right), one of the hostesses, greets four of the guests. From left, Mrs Chau Bui (Vietnamese), a probation officer with the Justice Department and a (

voluntary welfare officer for Vietnamese refugees; Mrs Jeanette McKenna (Egyptian-born Italian), a part-time student and cosmetics saleswoman; the Rev. Lio Paulo (Samoan), a minister of the Assemblies of God at Shirley; and Gunter Munsig (German), a medical social worker at Princess Margaret Hospital. Mrs Kerdemelidis, who is a Norwegian married to a Greek, said similar meetings would be held nnrfi a month. the next nn

August 22 at the old students’ union building in Montreal Street. Guests expressed delight at the opportunity to meet people from countries other than their own ethnic groups and said they hoped the guidance service, which filled a community need, would expand and develop. “Today’s meeting is a ‘little melting pot’ of nationalities who can get to know each other without having to join a group,” Mrs Kerdemelidis said.

The Link Guidance Service has an office at 32 Lichfield Street Its telephone number is 63-802.