Meeting at a Sydney cafe for a brief respite from their respective good works were Martha Jabour OAM, Nellie Doueihi and Monica Chahoud, three Sydney Catholic women who are among our state’s official ‘local heroes.’
Each was named in the NSW Local Women of the Year honour roll for 2025, but they say the work is more important to them than any accolades from their nominating members of parliament.
The honour roll is part of the NSW Women of the Year Awards, celebrating women who inspire others through their leadership, community service, and collaborative spirit.
Martha, co-founder of the Homicide Victim Support Group, Nellie the coordinator of St Declan’s Parish Penhurst visitation group, and Monica, the director of the Melkite Charitable Foundation each received the honour earlier this year.
Also honoured was Kate Cleary, a friend to many Sydney Catholics and the founder of rehabilitation centre The Farm in Galong. Kate was named a finalist for the NSW Regional Woman of the Year.
Nellie says she sees her award as “representing all the women” who volunteer alongside her.
“It’s through the mentoring and support of them that we’re able to serve and volunteer others in the community and all the initiatives we put in place,” she told The Catholic Weekly.
“Being part of a team with a vision, to look outwards and to serve the community is a privilege.”
Nellie, who received the Westfield Hurstville Local Hero award in 2023 and a St George Community Award, is the coordinator of the ministries to the sick and elderly at St Declan’s parish.
She coordinates 130 volunteers in her parish and 60 schoolkids to visit nursing homes and the homebound to connect with elderly people who are at risk of social isolation.
She helps to connect the elderly to the rest of her community through programs such as getting students to teach about technology, arts classes in nursing homes, and hosting supportive phone calls.
“My passion is for the intergenerational initiatives with St Declan’s Primary School and Marist College, Penshurst,” she said.
“It’s building that community, working together, really just to target the more isolated, lonely, and homebound.”
Nellie said her work is motivated by the Holy Spirit and her desire to share God’s love with those in her area.
“It’s filtering through to all the parishioners, so I feel people are being nourished and wanting to serve, and that outreach, it’s really coming alive more and more,” she said.
Monica is helping her local community, including its elders, as director of the Melkite Charitable Foundation, overseen by Bishop Robert Rabbat.
She said hundreds of people seek help from the foundation each month.
“Most of our work is with newly-arrived refugees and other people in need in our community, particularly the most vulnerable,” she said.
She said the area she worked in, Bankstown, was a mix of different communities and people and in addition to the help she provides to those who are Melkite, there are services readily available to the wider community.
“We do a lot of networking and a lot of coexistence in the area because there is such diversity, which is really important,” Monica said.
Martha said she is “really very proud” of Grace’s Place, a residential trauma centre for children opened in early 2024.
She inspired politicians, public servants, community organisations and others to raise funds for the world-first facility, on land donated by Blacktown City Council and the Western Sydney Parklands Trust.
Last April, Grace’s Place provided care for the overseas families of the victims of the Bondi shopping centre attack, including accommodation, counselling and funeral assistance.
“These children miss out on so much, so much is taken away from them, and this is just a tiny thing really that we can put into place for them,” Martha said.
“Then we can say to the family members who bring them to Grace’s Place, go and do something for yourself, go have a nice lunch or contact a friend to catch up. So we are also giving respite to the carers, who are often grandparents.”
Martha is also a community member representative on the NSW State Parole Authority, representing the families of homicide victims once an inmate becomes eligible for parole.
The wholistic rehabilitation centre called The Farm in Galong opened in 2019 in a former Mercy convent outside of Canberra. It was formed to address aspects of the problem of drug abuse in the community, with a focus on helping to empower women and their children.
“I have been living and working with women in difficult circumstances for many years, assessing their motivation, noting their practical needs, their deeper hopes, and attempting to help them live in a way that will both prompt and fulfill a desire for these deeper things,” Kate said.
“Over years of accompanying them a program of life has been developed. The program that has been designed to address these needs is based on what has been handed down to me within my faith tradition, both its philosophical and theological wisdom.”
3/7/25 Story updated to correct a photo caption