By Ethan Benedicto
Being comfortable and one with yourself has always been a rather difficult ordeal, but finding that peace, that medium to allow the expression of emotions is key to this organisation’s goal.
The Andres Pancha Anchor Community, posthumously named after the Cranbourne North father of three who was killed in Frankston Pier earlier this year, aims to provide a safe space for the freedom of articulation and connection.
With a focus on providing for disadvantaged youth, APAC’s launch on Saturday 30 November – the same date as Andres’ birthday – at Chelsea Activity Hub looks to take the first step in the not-for-profit’s mission of giving people a voice.
Divine Pancha, wife of Andres Pancha, said that finding peace after her husband’s passing has been difficult, but after realising that many close to her and many just a stone’s throw away were undergoing similar situations, an idea brewed in her mind.
“Before Andres passed away I did a lot of work on myself since we have three children, training on spirituality work and also a lot of artwork,” she said.
“I was struggling when I had postnatal, depression and anxiety – that was after Covid, and so I was looking at things for me, but then this happened.”
The media liaison and anchor guides, but also close family friends Elizabeth Sabelino and Katalina Vergara, had taken to visiting the Pancha household after Andres’s death.
A simple welfare check and a hello turned into something more when they saw Divine’s projects such as clay pottery and gardening.
“They took part and they loved it, so we started having regular meetings where I would give them some workshops,” she said.
“Then it was, ‘oh, how about we bring this to others?’, and they were talking about friends that lived nearby and like, maybe they wanted to do it.”
It all began with a simple conversation and for Divine, that was all the convincing she needed.
The location of the launch is close to the sea, resonating with Andres’ love for fishing and all things aqua, considering his trade as a seaman.
The event itself aims to provide an insight into connection through the arts, with a focus on addressing the needs of those who are disadvantaged and those who have been impacted by crime.
Divine said she’s been “very excited” for the launch, with previous workshops, called Wayfinder Workshops being held since the start of November.
The most recent was a Clay and Play workshop which took place on Saturday 23 November, one that focused on easing tension, releasing excess energy and expressing one’s feelings, incorporating the needs of the inner self and being comfortable in that mentioned space of mental and emotional safety.
It began with a grounding, colour meditation that had participants lay on mats and engage in breathwork, ensuring that they relaxed their muscles and their minds.
The clay-making came after, where the same participants were given the freedom of creation, whether that be to form something out of their meditation experience, or something else from their imaginations.
Once finished, they were asked to interpret the figures of their clay, on what it stood for and what it meant – and the answers ranged from the feeling of love to the care shown to a smoothened bowl, and to the comings and goings of experiences yet the stability of oneself through a clay tree.
“With APAC we have a mission on just the core, simple values of love, connection, compassion and the sense of wonder,” Divine said.
The finale was a journaling activity, where this session’s prompt had participants draw a flower and in the petals were asked to list a series of emotions.
From there, they were tasked with combining those words, constructing a loose narrative on their experience throughout the workshop where they were asked – if comfortable – to share with the rest.
“I’m really looking forward for the community to gather and just get a taste of it, it’s a very different kind of launch,” Divine said.
Held on Andres’ birthday, she added that this launch, and APAC as a whole is “coming from a real story that affects families and people”.
“This is important because people now are always measuring up to things, people are always thinking that you have to achieve something.
“Children should do this, or they should do that, or a young person should be able to do this; there’s so much pressure and they forget about who they really are you know?
“It’s extraordinary, this route, what happened to Andres has a huge message, the death itself is a message; what have the people done with themselves that it came to a point where someone died because of a person who didn’t have a home?”
Divine, through her and her late husband’s love for their children said that what APAC stands for is something that Andres would want to do, to “nourish the young people”.
With three children all under the age of 13, Divine said that the only step to be taken is to nurture her children, and from there, APAC looks to extend that love to others.
“It all connects with love, and we go back to ourselves because everyone is very busy, but at least with this, there’s some way of connecting,” she said.
“It’s more ways of creating encounters and connections and finding those abilities that you thought you didn’t have, but then realise that a lot of things are happening within you.
“Children have lost that sense of imagination because they’re scared of the world, especially because of what happened [with Andres].
“It’s more of that we come from the authentic side because this is an extraordinary story, we have a root, we have a human story, and the power of that human story we will allow it to unfold, to do its work.”
To Divine, she has hopes of collaborating with other organisations in the future with a strong belief that tackling their missions hand-in-hand would sow the seeds that would flourish within and nourish local communities.
But as the launch soon approaches the excitement grows for Divine, taking that first step into sharing the love and connection to all.
Forrest Stevenson, a 36-year-old of no fixed address, was charged with murdering Andres Pancha earlier in June.
He was remanded to next appear for a committal mention at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on 24 March.
For more information on APAC, visit apacommunitygroup.carrd.co/ and for more information on the launch, please visit the online version of this article to access the event’s link.
