March, 2008:

If you died tomorrow would your neighbours care or even know?

Today is Neighbour Day. It’s an opportunity to get to know those people who live nearest to us. The day came out of a rather tragic incident a few years back.

Neighbour Day was founded in Melbourne, Australia in March 2003 by Andrew Heslop after the remains of an elderly woman were found inside her suburban Melbourne home.

Mrs Elsie Brown had been dead for two years, forgotten and alone.

While Andrew did not know Mrs Brown he was appalled by the apparent ease with which she was left behind by the world around her. It was only when concerned neighbours eventually noticed piles of mail, catalogues and newspapers had built up at her door that they called the police.

Remarkably the gas, electricity, water and telephone were still connected.

We can ask ourselves what kind of a world we live in when such things can happen but unless we’re doing something about the issue ourselves, we’re the ones contributing to the problem.

Neighbour Day has five simple aims.

1. Strengthen communities and build better relationships with the people who live around us.
2. Create safer, healthier and more vibrant suburbs and towns.
3. Promote tolerance, respect and understanding.
4. Break down community barriers.
5. Protect the elderly, the vulnerable and the disadvantaged.

So how do you get involved? You don’t have to buy merchandise or do anything special. It’s really very simple.

Say G’day to your neighbours.
1. Make a special effort to introduce yourself to older residents in your street and anyone who lives alone.
2. Leave your mobile and home number for their use in an emergency.
3. Agree to keep in contact. 

Do you know the people who live next door to you? What about those who live two or three homes away?

We know quite a few people in our street but it’s still not quite the same as when we were growing up and knew everyone in our street by name. I don’t think we’ll ever get back to that stage but it’d be great if we could do something about building a sense of community in our own street.

With everyone having cars and local shops being open at all hours we don’t need to drop next door to borrow a cup of sugar these days or even to borrow the phone of the only person in the street who has one. Times have changed but we shouldn’t let that change who we are. We’re still people who need to build relationship with others and it makes sense to build relationship with those who live just metres away from us.

How has the sense of neigbourhood changed since you were young? Do you find it easy to connect with people in your area? Do you find that people keep to themselves these days?

Some say that with more and more home entertainment options like big screen TVs, theatre rooms, computers, computer games and the like that people are retreating into their homes rather than chatting over the side fence or kicking a ball in the street. What do you think?