Five-night Homestay needed for students from Miki City

Published on 22 June 2023

Host families are needed to host a Miki City exchange student, supporting them to experience everyday life in Australia.  

Federation Council is excited to announce that as part of the Federation Sister City Cultural Exchange Program, Miki City has confirmed a student exchange will take place in August. Eleven students and three chaperones will be arriving on Tuesday 22nd August, spending six days within the Federation Council, meeting the community, visiting local sites and experiencing our Australian culture.

There is a full program of activities over the six days that the students will be involved with during the day. Each host family has some evenings and one Saturday to plan family activities with their guest. The host family will need to provide their guest with a place to call home at night, their own room, breakfast and some dinners.  All families are welcome to apply.

Are you interested in being involved?

If you are interested in hosting, please fill out an Expression of Interest Form on Council’s website.

Federation Council Mayor Cr Patrick Bourke said, it is a great opportunity for the Federation community to get involved in the sister program by hosting students, and chaperones, “Many special lifelong friendships have developed between our cities and communities as a result of becoming involved in hosting.”

The Miki City Federation Council Sister City cultural exchange program is in its 26th year. The program involves students from Federation Council visiting Miki City in Japan every second year and Miki City students coming to Federation Council on the alternate year. With the impacts of Covid-19, this year will be the first travel exchange to take place since 2019.

The last visit to Federation was in 2018 where 14 families, five local businesses and two schools were directly involved in the program, including hosting. In total around sixty local people contributed to the success of the exchange. 

For any community members and families interested in hosting students, or chaperones during the August 2023 exchange program, please complete the Expression of Interest form available from Council’s website. Further queries can be made via phone on (02) 6033 8999 or email [email protected].