SSI volunteer Fabian Foo at Community Kitchen

SSI’s volunteer program builds on SSI’s ability to engage the broader community in its mission to support newcomers and other vulnerable Australians to prosper.

It also has benefits for the volunteers themselves.

Fabian Foo works as a manager in the NSW public service sector. Like many of SSI’s volunteers, he manages his volunteering around his work commitments.

Mr Foo, an SSI Community Kitchen and Welcome2Sydney volunteer, says he has found it very inspiring to meet like-minded people who are so passionate about their causes and their work.

“My volunteering experience has reiterated what I have always believed about people: that wherever we come from in the world and whatever language we speak and even what god we worship (if any) — in spite of all that, we are still more similar than we are different.

“To have been reminded of this, through my volunteering at SSI, has been a gift.”

Each year, over 300 volunteers collectively give over 10,500 hours of their time to support SSI clients and programs.

Working together, those community members provide additional support for programs and activities that might not otherwise be provided by SSI.

They also provide a fresh perspective and contribute to building social inclusion, community participation and cohesion.

Learn more about volunteering opportunities at SSI here.

Since the recent federal election, friends, neighbours, politicians and commentators have been telling me that many Australians have become inward looking and self-focused — that we have abandoned our pursuit of the common good in favour personal comfort and security: ‘what’s in it for me’.

Recent research shows we are not alone; individualism is on the rise globally. Counterintuitively, socioeconomic development is a predictor of whether individualistic practices and values will increase in a country over time. This means that, as people’s comfort and affluence increases, they become more concerned with things they suspect may infringe upon that quality of life.

Is this really true of Australia? Even if the commentators are right, is this the way it has to be?

We live in a country with a high quality of life and a stable economy, where we can speak our minds without risking vilification or violence. Being born in this country is not something we have earned or achieved. We won the birth lottery. 

My own parents came to Australia as migrants from post-WWII Greece. As a child, I remember visiting my dad’s village on the island of Chios and being bewildered by the lack of running water and electricity. As an adult, all I can do is appreciate the foresight that saw my parents leave behind their homeland to seek a better life for my sisters and me.

Not everyone has the opportunity my parents did. More than 68 million people globally have been displaced because of war or persecution. Yet, each year, only around 103,000 of those people have hope of resettling elsewhere.

What I regularly hear from the people we resettle in Australia is relief, hope and gratitude — gratitude for the safety our country offers and for the opportunity to build a life in which they can realise their full potential.

On the other hand, what I heard from many Australian-born voters in the lead up to the recent election is that they feel they have become a repressed ‘other’ in their own country. This is perhaps unsurprising given comments from politicians on both sides of the aisle blaming new Australians for everything from congestion to youth unemployment.

So what does this have to do with Refugee Week? Cultural celebrations help us to come together. They help to break down barriers between established and emerging communities and challenge our misconceptions about one another. During Refugee Week, share a meal, listen to a story, attend an event — get curious about the things that make us different.

This week is a chance for us to remember that we live in a society, not an economy — to open our hearts and minds to the idea that our differences are a strength, not a weakness. If we cannot sit respectfully around the table with people whose experiences differ from our own, how can we hope to find common cause on our approach to important issues?

As Australians, we need to be aspirational about the kind of country we want to be, rather than just protecting the kind of country we have now. We have different views and opinions, but we also have a lot in common. We share values, a love for our land, and a responsibility to see our country grow. It is on each of us to look for ways to raise the bar and resume our pursuit of the common good. 

Welcome2Sydney participants at the 2019 Sydney Writers’ Festival.

Welcome2Sydney is an SSI program that encourages newcomers to explore and develop a sense of belonging in their new home. Hosted by volunteer ambassadors, welcome activities include social, cultural and recreational excursions that match individual interests.

The Sydney Writers’ Festival ticketing team kindly reserved allocated seating for SSI at the Bankstown Poetry Slam: Women of the Word on May 4. The group of 20 included staff from the volunteers support team and Community Kitchen.

SSI’s HSP housing team provided a minivan to transport the young women and men to and from South Western Sydney.

The common thread among all participants was a love for literature and desire to socialise with other like-minded young adults.

They were able to share information and knowledge about their aspirations to study and contribute to the canon of great literature. They discussed the best universities and opportunities available, shared a meal and sang songs. They spoke about women who had inspired them and future plans for their next activity together.

One participant said the thing she loved the most about arriving in Sydney was that she was treated like a real human being. “I was treated with dignity,” she said, “I was treated as someone who had interests and aspirations — that there was more to me than being a refugee.”

Welcome2Sydney Project Officer Paula Ben David said that was a common experience for Welcome2Sydney participants, ambassadors and community support assistants.

“They are living and breathing proof of how great our communities are and can be,” she said. “Especially when people step up to welcome new arrivals, share their interests and celebrate an appreciation of belonging together.”

Cafe Patisserie owner, Enora (second from left) with members of the Ezidi community who cooked on the night.

Enora and Nathan, owners of the cafe, began to give croissants to the family in return. 

To make the Ezidi Food Night a reality, community member and valued friend of SSI, Sue Vile, worked with SSI’s Community Engagement Coordinator, Sam Airs, to organise the night where members of the wider community could come together and share a traditional Ezidi meal cooked by the eleven Ezidi community members.  

Sixty tickets were offered but, in a stunning turnout, over 70 people arrived, hungry to sample this traditional cuisine born and perfected over centuries in the mountain ranges of Northern Iraq. All profits from the evening were fed back into the Ezidi community to explore more great projects and initiatives in the future   

Café owner Nathan said, “Food is a great way to bridge cultures; it’s a shared language.”

SSI’s Sam Airs also called it “an incredible night of welcome where the local and newcomer community came together for a beautiful evening that was so much more than a dinner”.

To date, almost 300 Ezidis have arrived in Armidale and have been working excitedly to build their new lives in the community.

Recipients of SSI’s Community Innovation Fund (CIF) recently gathered in Ashfield to showcase these projects, which include technology-oriented English language classes, a peer support network for newly arrived refugees with disabilities, and an initiative that uses music to help refugees learn English.

Over the past five years, SSI and its partners have invested more than $5 million in initiatives like CIF that add value to its contracted programs, SSI CEO Violet Roumeliotis said.

“Drawing on feedback from communities, we have identified unmet needs and invested in initiatives to close these gaps. One such example is CIF, which was created following the 2015 decision to resettle a one-off intake of refugees from Syria and Iraq,” she said.

“We were thrilled that 12,000 people would have a safe home in Australia. We were also aware that a large portion of these families would initially settle in Fairfield and Liverpool, so it was important to ensure these communities were adequately supported.”

To identify what support was required, SSI turned to the communities themselves.

“Our intention was to build communities’ capacity to harness their own strengths. We worked hand-in-hand with south-west Sydney community leaders, local councils and other service providers to make communities stronger,” said Ms Roumeliotis.

“What makes this fund unique is that it resources community members who wouldn’t typically attract grant funding. We wanted to remove burdensome grant structures and simplify the application and monitoring process. Rather than filling out a complicated online form, for example, people pitch their ideas face to face.”

To date, SSI has funded 12 innovative projects, a number of which were on display during the ‘speed presenting’ event, where audience members split across two stations manned by CIF recipients. Over two rotating sessions, CIF participants gave sequential presentations about their initiatives and had a question and answer session.

Nehdal Amir from the Mandaean Women’s Union spoke about their hairdressing-training project, which to date has supported five newly arrived refugees from Mandaean backgrounds through an introductory hairdressing course.

The project aims to help participants overcome barriers to employment and education by introducing the basic concepts of hairdressing in Australia and providing them with industry connections and credit towards TAFE hairdressing qualifications.

“We now have many women on a waiting list to participate in the project and hope to teach more women how to find their way to hairdressing employment,” she said. “We are very grateful and thankful for SSI for supporting us to achieve our goals.”

Iraqi-born and award-winning filmmaker Ali Al Azeez.

Marking Refugee Week 2019, the Festival will form part of Open Inner West at the Community Refugee Welcome Centre (CRWC) in Callan Park, Lilyfield, on June 22, 2019.

It will showcase artworks produced at the Welcome Creative Hub — a series of cross-generational and cross-cultural public workshops facilitated by well-established artists and filmmakers from a refugee background — and to become a permanent art installation featured at the Centre.

Mr Al Azeez, an acclaimed filmmaker in Iraq whose film Link won an award at the Baghdad International Film Festival, said that running the workshops had been a valuable experience in skill sharing and had given him a platform to drive creative participation and social connection between inner west locals and newcomers.

“It’s been great to meet new people from the local community and see the workshop participants bring their creative vision to reality through film,” he said.

Arriving in Australia as a refugee in 2015, Mr Al Azeez continued to make films, including a short documentary called Without Borders, which celebrated multicultural Australia.

The inaugural screening of his second short film in Australia, LifeJacket, was held at the New Beginnings Festival in 2016. LifeJacket is a fictional story based on real-life experiences of people who arrive in Australia by boat and find themselves stuck in limbo due to personal traumas and cultural differences.

SSI Arts and Culture Producer Raphael Brasil said the success of the Welcome Creative Hub reflected SSI’s ongoing commitment to support established artists from a refugee and migrant background.

The Hub provided a platform for established artists of refugee background to transfer their skills and knowledge to a broader audience, he said.

“As newcomers adapt to a new social and cultural environment, the Hub provides opportunities for cross-cultural dialogue, highlighting the concept of ‘place’ and connection to Sydney’s inner west.

“The initiative also allows local communities to learn something new, all while making a social impact.”

The project is run by CRWC in close collaboration with Settlement Services International (SSI) and Inner West Council (IWC) and uses a fresh and innovative approach to creative engagement.

Established artists and filmmakers that are driving the workshops include Majid Rabet, Ali Al Azeez, Mohammed Alanezi and Elham Marvi.

Officially held on Sunday 26 May, Sorry Day was an important moment during Reconciliation Week to remember our country’s dark history of forced removals of First Nation children.

At the Colyton Community Hub, the community was able to reflect on the painful history of the Stolen Generations, and recognise moments of resilience, healing, forgiveness and the power of saying “sorry”.

To begin the day’s events, visitors were welcomed onto Darug land by Indigenous staff members with okra paint and the affirmation, “I see you”.

After being welcomed as brothers and sisters, Lisa, the school’s Community Hub Leader and a strong Darkingung woman, held a traditional smoking ceremony which was carried out by Nicole, SSI’s Project Officer – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Specialist, and Gomeroi Woman.

While embracing the smoke, individuals were encouraged to reflect on those who have been wounded by policies of past times, and how there are now hopes for healing.

Nicole, SSI’s Project Officer – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Specialist, and Gomeroi Woman, then spoke of the importance of not forgetting the past, while working towards a more equal future for Indigenous Australians.

“First Nation people do not wish to live in the past; however the past lives in us. With over 60 000 years of cultural knowledge, wisdom, protocols and customs, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities continue to provide diverse landscapes, deep strength, resilience and purpose,” said Nicole.

“Now it is time to forgive the past, the present and future wrongs of this country.”

The day continued with a reading of the ‘Apology to Australia’s Indigenous Peoples’, the speech read in parliament by former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in 2008. Afterwards, attendees were encouraged to reflect on what was said and write what they were sorry for on a piece of paper. The group then gathered, reading their apologies aloud before the pieces of paper were collectively thrown into a fire.

The day closed with the reveal of SSI’s official Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Reconciliation Action Plan artwork by Indigenous staff member Julie.

The event brought together people of all backgrounds, and was a deeply moving, educational experience for all who attended.

Sara Hamka, SSI Arts and Culture Project Co-ordinator reflected, “Being here today, and walking alongside my Indigenous colleagues, has really opened my eyes to how important it is to keep having these conversations surrounding equity and opportunity in the Indigenous community. We still have a long way to go.”

“There is something about mosaic which I find very satisfying, as it is almost like doing a jigsaw puzzle,” said Serena, who volunteers her time and skills at Settlement Services International’s (SSI) fortnightly Community Kitchen.“I believe it is particularly beneficial for the people who come here and may be suffering from tough times, as it is quite a therapeutic process.”

Talented ceramic artist Serena first heard about the Community Kitchen in Auburn while volunteering at Villawood Detention Centre. Now, over a year and a half later, she has been coming to the Kitchen every fortnight to share her passion for artistic expression with the local community of newcomers.

When she first started volunteering, Serena would bring clay to teach new arrivals how to make pots, plates and cups, before taking them home to fire in her kiln.

“Although clay was fun, it required a bit of guidance, and the results were not immediate because of the drying and firing process,” she said.

The spark for this most recent project, the mosaic surfboard, came in October 2018 when she began looking for an activity that would unite people, even if they weren’t returning guests.

Serena wanted the group activity to be familiar for the participants, and at the same time, quintessentially Australian.

“Mosaic is a familiar decorative art form to most people, being commonly found adorning mosques and temples, and even though Auburn is in Sydney’s west, people still associate surfing with Australian culture.”

Over six months, Serena has led hundreds of guests visiting Community Kitchen events to cover the surfboard in a rainbow of beautifully coloured tiles, forming three distinct butterflies.

Serena plans to continue volunteering at the Community Kitchen, and is envisioning a mosaic chair as the next project.

“I love seeing such a diverse group of brave, strong people come together. Being part of Community Kitchen has been amazing and it is a pleasure to spend time with such a great team,” said Serena.

Learn more about volunteering with SSI.

Creating social cohesion and empowering people to achieve their full potential through community-based initiatives has always been at the heart of SSI Ability Links.

With a focus on youth, the program targets newly arrived refugees with a mental health or psychological disability who are ineligible for support from the NDIS.

“Soccer is one of the most popular sports in the world, a sport that helps to facilitate inclusion and social cohesion,” said Ability Links Operations Manager Ben Fioramonte.

Following the launch in April, SSI Ability Links Area Coordinator Susan Cameron-Jung said many different communities came together “to share their love of soccer”, including Football NSW, Auburn Youth Centre, Afghan Hassanian Youth Association, Bankstown and Canterbury Council and Woodville Alliance.

“It was amazing to see everyone so passionate and excited,” said Ms Cameron-Jung. “After this success, SSI Ability Links hopes to replicate the program throughout Sydney.”

The project will be held at Auburn Youth Centre every Friday from 5:30pm eight weeks from Friday, May 24.

Football NSW has partnered with Ability Links on the program, offering tailored coaching sessions and training for participants from beginner to intermediate level.

If you or anyone you know might be interested in participating in the program, please contact Tamana Muslih (tmuslih@ssi.org.au) or Nawar Shadood, (nshadood@ssi.org.au) from Ability Links for more information. 

The latest project, launched in Lidcombe last month, helps bring together and support young refugees and their carers through a weekly social soccer meet-up.

Monday marks the start of National Reconciliation Week — a time to learn about our shared history and to explore how each of us can contribute to a positive, unified future. This week covers two significant dates: the 1967 referendum to amend the constitution to include Aboriginal people in the census and allow the Commonwealth to create laws for them, and the High Court Mabo decision, which recognised the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the traditional owners of the land.

What does this mean for us at SSI? We all live and work on Aboriginal land. Every day, when we come to work, we walk on land where traditional custodians have had culture and connection for more than 60,000 years. That is a privilege – a privilege we must acknowledge and reciprocate by ensuring that, when we walk on this land, we walk together.

This year’s Reconciliation Week theme is ‘Grounded in truth: walk together with courage’. Walking together is about learning, exploring our commonalities, understanding our differences, and supporting each other. When you walk together with someone you walk beside them — not in front, not behind.

As an organisation, SSI has embarked on a journey of reconciliation. What’s our vision for that journey? We are still determining that, with the leadership of our Walking Together Committee, which was recently established to consult on Indigenous matters and develop our first Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP).

The reason SSI is driving this process is because we recognise that we are stronger as one. Reconciliation is about acknowledging the strength within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, and all that we have to gain by embracing one another’s contributions — socially, economically, culturally and spiritually.

Growing our engagement with, and understanding of, Australia’s First Nations cultures is our shared privilege. 

By connecting with people from different walks of life and getting to know the person behind the label, we have the opportunity to see that there are no gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities — just people, coming together to respect, accept and trust each other.