SSI CEO Violet Roumeliotis and SSI Chair Elisabeth Shaw at the TEDxSydney 2018 Conference.

The SSI and TEDxSydney partnership involved a “Pay It Forward” initiative where conference registrants were able to give participants from a wide-range of SSI programs, including disability services, arts and culture, multicultural foster care, refugee resettlement, entrepreneurs, youth services, and employment and training the opportunity to attend the conference for free.

Captured is SSI program participants with company Cuscal who sponsored 10 tickets at the value of $3,500.

SSI Ability Links participant Abrahim Darouiche attended the conference and said that he was eager to gain ideas and new ways to promote inclusion within his community for people with a disability.

“I am looking forward to accessing new ideas and ways of thinking, innovation, and inspiration for my own business and endeavours,” Mr Darouiche said.

Mr Darouiche grew up in Western Sydney from a culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) background. Due to his conditions, finding ways to participate in his community had its challenges.

“I found adolescence, in particular, a challenge. I was constantly asking myself where I fit in within the community,” he said.

Education pathways were not straight-forward for Mr Darouiche, but he managed to overcome barriers and has a Bachelor of Business and Commerce, along with a Master’s degree. Today, he is an active member of the community and provides peer support through many initiatives and programs.

“I currently work with Disability and Diversity Alliance to run peer support groups to empower people with disabilities to carve their voice in the community.”

Mr Darouiche has launched his own public-speaking business and works with NSW Business Chamber, SSI, and local governments to promote access and inclusion to businesses.

“I give talks and presentations to businesses and community leaders about the unique assets that people with disabilities can offer to organisations and business, and the value of having them as employees.”

Award-winning artist and former refugee from Iraq Bassam Jabar, also attended the conference. Mr Jabar was announced the winner of Art in the Hills prize by former Archibald Prize winner Cherry Hood back in 2015.

Mr Jabar is a budding entrepreneur and participant of the SSI Ignite Small Business Start-ups initiative; his artworks have attracted the attention of notable galleries including Kirra Galleries at Melbourne’s Federation Square. He was asked to comment on what “HumanKind” means to him at the conference, watch his interview and hear his heartfelt words on the topic, click here to view.

The SSI New Beginnings Festival curated an interactive dance workshop led by Shyamla for the Mind Body & Soul tribe in the Hub. Shyamla Eswaran is an accomplished performing artist specialising in cultural dance, including Hip Hop, Bollywood, Semi-Classical Indian and Brazilian Samba.

Before launching her own multicultural dance performance initiative, Ms Eswaran worked for the Australian Human Rights Commission and was well-equipped with a Master’s degree in International Human Rights Law.

“I worked for the Australian Human Rights Commission before realising that the best way to effect social change is through the arts,” Ms Eswaran said.

As part of the TEDxSydney after-party, the SSI New Beginnings Festival curated a performance by Sydney Hip Hop artist Kween G. Born in Uganda, Kween G came to Australia after her family was granted asylum and creates music that excites, entertains, and enlightens her listeners — she is often described as “consciousness-raising”.

SSI Ability Links participant Xiaolong Yang is a middle aged single father who is living with physical and psychiatric disability due to an injury suffered in his workplace seven years ago. He is on a disability support pension, and his main carer is his teenage son Brendan. As his carer, Brendan had to look after Mr Yang on a daily basis, forcing him to miss school from time to time.

Mr Yang came from China 19 years ago and had little knowledge of how the government system worked due to language and cultural barriers. After connecting with SSI Ability Links through his linker Kathy, they began learning more about the NDIS, looking at ways to gain support from it and how to have a more active participation in the community.

Mr Yang was able to attend NDIS workshops to obtain information on how to prepare documents to apply for NDIS support. He managed to set up and submit his plan, having it approved in November 2017. Through this plan he has accessed several services including physio, golf games and carer services, which have helped improve his mental health.

He was also linked to the Diversity Disability Alliance (DDA) to acquire peer support services. After three sessions, he attended a DDA mentor training and became a peer support mentor which gave Mr Yang the skills necessary to organise a Chinese care group and be more connected with his community.

With the support Mr Yang receives from his NDIS plan, Brendan is now studying at Sydney University and working as an administrative assistant.

Participants of the train the trainer session receive their certificates and resources to champion inclusiveness in their communities.

As a first step of this process, 22 community leaders from CALD backgrounds residing in Blacktown, Parramatta, Cumberland, Fairfield, Liverpool, Bankstown and Willoughby councils were consulted on the particular barriers faced by CALD people with disability in their communities, and what resources and information could empower the leaders to address those barriers. From this consultation, a train the trainer package was developed and delivered by Ability Links, and supported by local governments, the NSW business chamber, and SSI. The project equips community leaders with the narrative and resources to promote inclusion whilst addressing the barriers faced by people with disability to enable them to fully participate in their community.

Community leaders are volunteers that hold influential status in their communities, from board members of organisations to business owners and community organisers, whose common thread is their connection to their community and a drive to make them inclusive for everyone, regardless of their ability. These leaders are now ready to train their community members on diversity and inclusion, targeting attitudes and understandings on disability as an added layer of diversity.

The community leaders are the owners of the project, and they can gain support and advice from their local SSI Ability Links or local government representatives for the delivery of this training to their communities. With many of these leaders coming from a CALD background, this will enable these leaders to deliver some of those presentations in their own language.

“This project is about passing the knowledge and resources to the community, so they can better deliver the message of inclusion to all their members”, said Mr. Javier Ortiz, Diversity Inclusion officer at SSI. “Through the participation on this project, SSI is contributing to support local and state governments’ inclusion strategies and build more inclusive cities”, added Mr. Ortiz.

The presentations in the communities will occur between September and December, but this will not be the end of the project. The objective is to foster long lasting relationships and create the grass roots to continue passing on resources to create more inclusive communities.

Toy Drive
To start I’d like to recognise the truly inspiring work of our SSI volunteers who have taken the initiative in organising the hugely successful toy drive throughout this month! We’re still receiving offers and donations from over a dozen businesses around Armidale, watch this space in the near future as we’ll be giving a shout-out to all the businesses who have made our toy drive such a success!

The Working Group
June 1st marked the first day of the Working Group. The Working Group provides an avenue for emerging leaders within the newly arrived community to speak and represent themselves or various cohorts in the community regarding issues important to them. SSI works closely with the Working Group to plan and implement strategies to achieve their goals. Women, men and youth are represented at the meetings that take place on a fortnightly basis.
The Working Group is a great avenue for community members and support services to share their initiatives directly with leaders within the Yazidi community to guide their work. This week we will have a representative from St Vincent de Paul to discuss volunteer opportunities. Northern Settlement Services will also attended to discuss funding opportunities for youth.

Collaboration with Sanctuary
June 7th marked the first day of meetings between Sanctuary and SSI. Both of our organisations have a wealth of experience in supporting new arrivals to the community and SSI will work closely with Sanctuary to support our newly arrived families in Armidale. Meetings will take place every fortnight and in the meantime our joint process of working together are still being mapped out, but I’m confident that the collaborative efforts of both organisations will prove a great benefit to our families and the community.

Multicultural Women’s Evening
June 30th will be a celebration of culture through food, dance, traditional costume and music at the UNE Wright Centre Hall. UNE International Students Hub, Northern Settlement Services and SSI are working together to ensure a great night had by women in the Armidale area. An educational piece will also be provided through presentations by the Armidale Women’s Homelessness Support Services, to educate and inform women of services available to them and their children. We’re also very fortunate to have Wild Women Band play for us on the night. The purpose of the evening is to assist women in connecting to each other, the community and support services in the Armidale area through a shared love and respect of different cultures.

Council Afternoon Tea
Armidale Regional Council held an afternoon tea on World Refugee Day – June 20th to commemorate the strength, courage, and perseverance of refugees. It was a great turn out by the newly arrived families. We were also lucky to have Muzafar Ali and Khadim Dai, former refugees from Afghanistan and Leads of the recently screened ‘The Staging Post’ feature film, as well as Steve Widders (Member of the Multicultural NSW Advisory Board and Chair of Multicultural New England Regional Advisory Council to the Board) who all attended the afternoon tea. Thank you to Armidale Regional Council for hosting such an amazing event.

The Screening of ‘The Staging Post’
As previously mentioned, the screening of ‘The Staging Post’ was presented by SSI and Armidale Regional Council and hosted by the Belgrave Cinema for Refugee Week 2018.
The Staging Post is an Australian feature documentary that was filmed in 2017 and follows the lives of two Afghan Hazara refugees, Muzafar and Khadim.
Stuck in Indonesia after Australia ‘stopped the boats’ and facing many years in limbo, they built a community from the ground up and started the Cisarua Refugee Learning Centre (CRLC).
It conveys powerful messages about friendship and connection. The film’s key and most powerful message is around the resilience and agency of refugees to generate change and create solutions.
The film was an opportunity to foster a positive narrative in local and regional communities about refugees and resettlement.
Following the screening of the film, Lindsay Woodland from Armidale Regional Council facilitated a Q&A style panel featuring the film’s leads Muzafar Ali and Khadim Dai and Armidale Yazidi community member Sarbast Qassim.
Thank you to Armidale Mayor Simon Murray, Aboriginal Elder Hazel Green, Armidale Regional Council, Belgrave Cinema, SSI staff and of course those on the panel- Khadim, Muzafar and Sarbast for a fantastic evening. The feedback has been very positive and appreciated by those who attended.
That’s all for this edition of Sam’s Space, keep an eye out for more announcements from SSI and our community partners!

A great time for carers to look after themselves

“Carers of people with disability always put those who they care for first, and are not often acknowledged; they are tireless supporters of their loved ones, sometimes relegating their own wellbeing” said Ms Amita Lama, SSI Ability Links Linker who organised this wonderful event. “Carers enjoyed two hours to focus on their health and wellbeing, through beauty therapies, henna, wellbeing conversations and gentle exercise”.

“I feel so pampered today”, “I don’t remember when was the last time I painted my nails”, “I would have never thought of pampering myself if I was at home, usually I do cleaning and other house work but never to do anything for myself”, were some of the comments from the 16 carers attending the special morning.

Ms Farah Vayani, carer for her child with disability and facilitator of a support group with the Autism Community Network in Castle Hill, shared some of her thoughts on why it was important for carers to take time to look after themselves. “We as carers often forget about ourselves,” she said. “Sometimes we can feel like we are about to break, and we need to understand that in order to care for others, we need to take care of ourselves. It’s difficult for us to do it, but once we do, it’s a big change and we feel invigorated.”

Ms Vayani said, “Sometimes caring for a loved one with disability can be isolating; it’s important to look for support, have the space to share, vent, and understand we are not alone.

“We want to promote these spaces in the community. Carers make a tireless effort and they need to be rewarded. It’s very important to dedicate some time for self-care, and why not laugh — laughter is the best medicine.”

Carers spent a wonderful morning focusing on themselves and re-energising to come back to their everyday lives giving their best to the loved ones they care for.

SSI CEO Violet Roumeliotis

In celebrating Refugee Week 2018 and supporting the UNHCR’s #withrefugees movement, SSI renews its commitment to refugees settling in Australia, to enable education, provide safety and facilitate the learning of new skills to support independence and self-determination.

We’re incredibly proud of the achievements of our staff and volunteers, who work at the coalface of refugee settlement with newly arrived families, many of whom were part of the 12,000 additional refugees accepted by Australia under humanitarian visas due to the Syria/Iraq humanitarian crisis.

The latest region to accept refugees with the support of SSI’s Humanitarian Settlement Program team has been the regional centre of Armidale, and we’ve seen a truly incredible outpouring of support and welcoming from the community, some of whom have already joined SSI as volunteers and are assisting the newly arrived families.

In reflecting on this single project, I can see SSI’s work truly reaches the heart of the #withrefugees movement.

Australia can count itself among the most successful examples of multiculturalism in the world with 28% of Australians born overseas, who over generations have brought with them their traditions and cultures to enrich our society.

Everything we are seeing about refugees in Australia at the moment, the benefits, the challenges, the stories of sorrow and hope, are all part of the wonderful cycle of settlement and the transition to a place of safety and infinite prospects.

Every generation has experienced mass migration movements of some scale and, looking back in retrospect, we can clearly see the willingness of those migrants to contribute and build our society for the better.

Settling in a new part of the world has no common formula, but in countless examples throughout history there have been pockets in which migrant communities initially gathered for mutual support and familiarity. Over time, as confidence and independence grow, those communities become enabled to move on and spread out to seek new homes and prospects to build a successful future.

Education has always been one of the most powerful tools in developing independence and self-determination, and we’ve achieved some incredible goals in this area for refugees, in partnership with the NSW State Government, Allianz (refugee scholarships) and the patronage of Peter Shergold, Chancellor of Western Sydney University.

Education and refugee scholarships have seen thousands of individuals enabled to reach their full potential upon settling in Australia, and many of them have used their invaluable skills to give back to their communities and drive initiatives alongside SSI.

A prime example of this success is the Youth Collective. Under the guidance of SSI Youth Project Coordinator Dor Achiek, participants are encouraged to drive their own programs based on the needs and visions they see within their communities.

In a larger capacity, SSI uses this same philosophy of consulting client needs to inform our direction and strategies on a regular basis, for all our programs and initiatives. To assist in this we’ve created the Community Innovation Fund to provide the resources to enable change by the community, for the community.

Most recently we’ve taken this approach of stakeholder consultation in preparation for the upcoming UNHCR Annual Consultations with NGOs in Geneva, by coordinating directly with the Refugee Council of Australia, the peak body of refugee advocacy on Australia.

On June 27 SSI will once again take an active role in the consultations, with SSI’s Humanitarian Settlement Program Manager, Yamamah Agha, acting as official Rapporteur.

SSI is committed to maintaining an active voice in the area of migration and settlement services on a world stage. We’ve taken huge strides in recent years to establish ourselves as a thought leader through our partnerships and participation in global discussions, held at events like the UNHCR’s Geneva consultations and the highly anticipated Metropolis Conference 2018 hosted by SSI in Sydney in late October.

This Refugee Week we have an incredible program of refugee engagement across NSW. Just a few of the highlights include the New Beginnings Festival at the Community and Refugee Welcome Centre in Lilyfield, which will host a screening of acclaimed film The Staging Post, which will also be played at a special screening in Armidale for the whole community to enjoy.

Thirty refugees have also been invited to a special meeting with the Minister for Home Affairs and Immigration and Border Protection, Peter Dutton, on Wednesday June 20 in Canberra, where they will have the opportunity to tell their stories of successful settlement in Australia and their dreams for the future.

SSI has been proud to facilitate this visit in partnership with the Department of Home Affairs, and we thank our program participants for taking time out of their busy lives to attend.

Have a safe and happy Refugee Week 2018!

During Refugee Week we:

• reflect on the needs faced by millions of people forced from their homes
• come together to celebrate the courage of refugees resettling in Australia
• recognise the generous acts of welcome displayed to refugees by so many caring Australians

As SSI CEO Violet Roumeliotis says: “In celebrating Refugee Week 2018 and supporting the UNHCR’s #withrefugees movement, SSI renews its commitment to refugees settling in Australia, to enable education, provide safety and facilitate the learning of new skills to support independence and self-determination.”

Key SSI events for Refugee Week

June 20: SSI Speaker Series & Film Screening — The Staging Post, Armidale

June 21: SSI Speaker Series & Film Screening — The Staging Post at the Australian National Maritime Museum

June 24: SSI New Beginnings Festival event The Spirit of Welcome will officially close 2018 Open Inner West at the Refugee Welcome Centre in Callan Park, Leichhardt.
Read how Innovative artist blends technology with art to build engagement during Refugee Week.

SSI will announce the opening of the second round of applications for the Community Innovation Fund.

Events hosted by member and partner organisations

June 20: Bayside Refugee Week Event — How I Became a Refugee film screening.

June 20: #Fairfieldstandswithrefugees — 10am-12.30pm Level 1 41-43 Smart Street, Fairfield, Monamor Reception Centre. Contact Morlai on 9727 0477.

June 21: Penrith Celebration hosted by Penrith Multicultural Interagency, 10am – 2pm, St Marys Community, Centre, St Marys, Corner Community & Cultural Precinct, Building 5, 29 Swanston Street, St Marys. Contact Laura Sardo 9833 2416 or laura@nma.org.au.

June 22: Freedom Feast Multicultural Banquet — Coffs Central (Upstairs) Food at the Terrace, Harbour Drive, Coffs Harbour, authentic cultural food, live cultural music and dance, and storytelling

June 22: Western Sydney MRC Connecting Communities — Community HeART.

June 22: Blacktown City Refugee Week Celebration 2018.

June 27: Bankstown Navigating the Changing Landscape #WithRefugees.

Other events

Refugee Council’s Refugee Week events

Refugee Film Festival Sydney 

City of Sydney Refugee Week what’s on

Adi Tefera photographed by William Robinson in Summer Hill. 

As part of the SSI IgniteAbility program and in recognition of her strong entrepreneurial spirit, Ms Tefera was selected to run a morning coffee business at the Four Brave Women café in Summer Hill. She serves coffee that is sustainably sourced from Ethiopia, as well as hot chocolate, and chai and spiced tea.

At Four Brave Women, Ms Tefera offers takeaway breakfast foods influenced by her Ethiopian and Eritrean background, including kita firfir, a spicy-savoury pancake dish, and teff chocolate brownies. Her plans for the future include the desire to run traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremonies in the shop.

Her coffee business is thriving with the support of the local community. Ms Tefera is diving into all aspects of the business from selecting coffee beans and blends to engaging suppliers, developing recipes, marketing, and financial planning.

In collaboration with her facilitator at the IgniteAbility program, Ms Tefera has set herself some exciting goals, including running a market stall at Marrickville Street Food Markets, focussing on traditional vegetarian Ethiopian cuisine.

She also plans to produce a series of YouTube tutorials on Ethiopian cultural-cooking and recipes, traditional Ethiopian health and wellness remedies, and upcycled life hacks.

“My dream is to own an Ethiopian restaurant – a vegetarian restaurant, so I can share the culture and the dance and the food, the coffee,” she said in a recent interview with ABC News.

Ms Tefera is eager to create a contemporary Ethiopian cookbook for the Australian market. She plans to develop a website and an online platform that will channel and centralise all her activities, and ultimately, offer her products online for sale.

“I had nothing when I came to Australia — this [IgniteAbility] program is great for any refugee wanting to create a better future for themselves in Australia,” Ms Tefera said.

While Ms Tefera says that as a single mother, it is difficult to manage all her projects, it’s an opportunity she is embracing, both for herself and her young son.

“[My] son had tears when he found out I was involved in running a new business — it’s so nice to see that he is proud of me, and I am proud of what I have achieved,” she said.

To follow Adi’s journey, follow her Instagram page: www.instagram.com/adis_kitchen/ 

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/adiscoffeeandkitchen/