Jindabyne is well represented in the Country Women's Association movement with two groups a Jindabyne CWA Day Branch and a Jindabyne CWA Evening Branch, each serving the same purpose to support women in town.

Both Jindabyne groups are joining forces for CWA of NSW Awareness Week 2026 held from Sunday 6 September to Saturday 12 September with the theme, "Stop normalising the rural health crisis. Start fixing it."

The campaign focuses on raising awareness of the healthcare challenges facing regional, rural and remote communities and advocating for practical reforms that will deliver better health outcomes across NSW.

Groups are calling for every rural community to have access to a local GP and flexible team-based primary healthcare, restoring maternity services so more women can give birth closer to home, building permanent rural health workforces rather than relying on costly short-term locum doctors, giving local communities a greater voice in decisions about their health services, establishing an independent Rural Health Commissioner to improve accountability and better integration between hospitals, general practice, councils and community health services.

CWA Awareness Week also provides branches with the opportunity to acknowledge and raise awareness of their work in the community and give other women a taste of the fun and friendship enjoyed by members in their town.

Jindabyne CWA Day Branch communications officer, Kristin Fildes, said what's important and different about CWA is how connected the groups are at that real grassroots level.

"Our branches are really connected to the local schools and community, we go into the schools once a week to provide breakfast to the students as well as cater for special events like mothers day and fathers day and by doing these things, not only are we able to raise funds, but we can then direct those funds to the places in the community where they could really make a difference," Ms Fildes said.

"We are always encouraging of people if they are interested in contributing to the community there's so many different ways you can get involved. CWA is not just making cakes, catering and knitting. There's a lot of community programs that we do and even just coming along and joining the CWA makes a difference because our membership fees go straight back to the community."

Jindabyne CWA Evening Branch president, Montana O’Neill, said members set up a stall in Nuggets Crossing in Jindabyne on Wednesday 9 September in hopes to start a conversation with the community and bring awareness to this year's theme.

"It was a great opportunity for the community to come up to us and have a chat and we got to explain what we do as a group and to encourage people to come along and join in," Ms O’Neill said.

"Obviously right now we have an aged care issue in the Snowy Monaro and that's a big focal point of conversation among our residents and we have a pretty good healthcare system in our region, because of this we decided as a branch to put more of our focus on people getting involved in aged care.

"But we were mostly just talking about who we are, what we do, what to expect at meetings and the event we have coming up which is a succulent workshop at the Jindabyne Bowling Club and we encourage all to come along and get involved."

Both groups are always looking for new members and encourage anyone interested in joining to get in contact and have a chat, CWA's are important as it provides vital community support, healthcare services, and advocacy for rural, regional, and isolated families, find out more about your local CWA group visit www.cwaofnsw.org.au