“I was born and raised in Damascus, Syria. Syria is the country where I attended school and university for free, where I enjoyed safety and security, where I learned to communicate and respect others even when we have differences in religion, thought, doctrine or ideology,” she said.

“My mother worked as a school manager for the last 20 years and before that she was a teacher, I grew up in a family that appreciated education and encouraged us to not only complete high school and university, but also to undertake a master’s degree and PHD.”

Dana was in the process of completing her master’s in auditing when the war in Syria cut short her studies.

“I had an amazing family, good health. I was studying, first going to school then attending university. I had a job, good friends and relatives. We could go out whenever we wanted and wherever we wanted. In other words, we had a normal life and stability — those things that I now call life’s gifts,” she said.

“At that time, we used to get confused and get angry and upset sometimes from things that now I see are so silly. The biggest problem that faced us at that time is nothing compared with our problems now.”

“Things started to take a turn for the worse. Each day was riskier than the day before, until the day came when I decided that I could no longer handle looking over my shoulders 24/7.”

As the eldest child in her family, Dana took responsibility at an early age — responsibility that only grew upon the death of her father. For Dana, this upheaval helped to shape her personality and her growth. “I am glad because God trusted me to give me those responsibilities,” she said.

With the war escalating in Syria, Dana decided to seek employment in Iraq, moving far away from her family. Life in Iraq was hard, but she learned a lot and it prepared her for a bigger move that was yet to come.

When the situation in Iraq too became unsafe, Dana came to Australia to seek safety. SSI provided Dana with essential support and information to assist her to settle and to live independently in Australia, including linking her with a corporate partner, where she has since found employment.

“I had to start life again here. I was blessed to find work quickly and I have now secured a job in auditing,” Dana said. “I started just in October 2017. I am looking forward to continuing my career path in Australia and being able to support my family and feeling independent again.”

Along with assistance of SSI, Dana said the support of her family has made the move to Australia more bearable.

“My situation as a young single woman moving to other countries alone is unique and uncommon within my society. However, I have proven to myself and to my community, that this can be done,” she said.

“Changing perceptions and the mindsets of others is one achievement in my life that I am very proud of.”

Mr Aldod is a new arrival from a refugee background, recreating life in his new home in Australia.

From Iraq, Mr Aldod was a petroleum engineer in the Middle East for 23 years, with experience in leading large government projects.

“Managing such large projects from start to finish taught me that even the best planner cannot predict the obstacles that can come up along the way, and what is important is to take the first step,” Mr Aldod said.

Mr Aldod – along with 13 other people supported by the Refugee Employment Support Program (RESP), delivered by SSI – have been offered employment with Woolworths after participating in a three-week work experience program.

Woolworths, in partnership with SSI and Community Corporate, has provided opportunities for newcomers to enter their business as part of their wider diversity and inclusion strategy and genuine commitment to have a workforce that reflects the local community.

Azin Soleymani Dahajhas is another newcomer who has also been supported by SSI RESP to achieve her career goals and settle into life in Australia. After participating in the Woolworths program, she secured employment in the Woolworths support office.

“I am so happy to be meeting some of the 3000 people that work in this office, and to have the opportunity to be in paid work.”

SSI CEO and Telstra Australian Business Woman of the Year, Violet Roumeliotis, said it’s encouraging that businesses like Woolworths, Allianz, Clubs NSW and the many other supporters of RESP understand the value of investing in diversity and recognise the skills, knowledge and experience that many newcomers have to offer.

“One of their biggest challenges is the lack of local work experience or professional networks. Some time spent as an intern or in work experience not only gives them something tangible to put on their resume, but goes a long way to increasing their self-confidence and integration into Australian working life,” Ms Roumeliotis said.

“I hope more corporates come on board and that other business leaders consider the innovation and commercial impact to be gained from partnerships with the not-for-profit sector.”

SSI Youth Employment and Social Enterprise Manager Leanne Hung with Hills Shire Mayor Dr Michelle Byrne.

The Staples Bag vouchers were funded by the Hills Shire Council in support of financial inclusion practices, and were gifted to local community members in need.

In launching the event, Baulkham Hills Mayor Michelle Byrne noted the positive impact services like The Staples Bag had on the community.

“Initiatives like The Staples Bag not only help those less fortunate in our community with their basic needs, but also provides work experience, training and networking opportunities for those having difficulty securing employment or needing a leg up. It is about empowering those in our community and reducing social isolation,” said Mayor Byrne.

Acting Chief Executive Officer of Hills Community Aid Mici Beer highlighted the importance of raising awareness of services like The Staples Bag and helping people in the community make better financial decisions.

“We welcome The Staples Bag into our community as a promoter of financial inclusion, and we recognise that by inviting The Staples Bag into the community we are stretching people’s financial agility,” said Ms Beer.

SSI Youth Employment and Social Enterprise Manager Leanne Hung said The Staples Bag supported people to meet their most basic needs.

“Being able to afford rising rent and household bills should never come at the expense of nutritious food. The Staples Bag helps individuals and families stretch their dollar further so that they’re able to afford fresh and nutritious groceries,” Ms Hung said.

Manning The Staples Bag’s stall at the launch were a number of people engaged in SSI’s Youth Placement Pathways Program (YPPP), which provides work experience opportunities for young people experiencing unemployment. YPPP participant Laura Palozzi came across SSI when she moved to Sydney from Tamworth and was put in touch with her local job network provider.

“SSI gave me the opportunity to join the YPPP program to gain valuable work experience. The program is great if you have no work experience and are looking for a step up,” said Ms Palozzi.

SSI Youth Placement Pathways Program (YPPP) participant Laura Palozzi. 

The Staples Bag pop up shop will feature at Hills Community Aid in Baulkham Hills every second Friday.

On the flip side, we see worrying instances of race-baiting and media sensationalism that target minority groups, like the recent storm that broke over Victoria’s African-Australian community.

Newspaper headlines in January were dominated by reports of an escalation of activity involving so-called “African gang crime” in Melbourne. Various politicians weighed in on the issue, which gave plenty of material for news-short journalists over the traditionally quiet summer reporting period.

Much of this coverage was overhyped and sensationalised. In at least one instance, the outlet reporting on an African “gang flare-up” had actually instigated the conflict in question.

The political dog-whistling and hysterical media coverage ignored the facts — and the experts. Victorian Police have repeatedly hosed down reports of a crime crisis and have in fact called on media to stop using inflammatory language like “gangs”.

According to police, what we are actually seeing is an increase in public disorder and misbehaviour — some of which involves youth from the African-Australian community.

Proportionally, Sudanese immigrants are over-represented in crime statistics (people born in Sudan make up just 0.1 per cent of Victoria’s total population while they make up 1 per cent of the offender population).

Yet the majority of offenders in Victoria remain people born in Australia (nearly 72 per cent). And the overall crime rate in Victoria is actually declining. But you wouldn’t know that from perusing the headlines published across the country over the past month — headlines that ignore the shades of grey in this complex situation.

The Victorian Police have called for calm, pointing to the growing racially motivated threats being made against members of the African community.

Leaders from Melbourne’s Sudanese community have also come out in force for their community. One particularly positive outcome has been the spontaneous reclaiming of the Twitter hashtag #africangangs. The hashtag began trending nationally, filled with images that counter the narrative about violence and gangs — images of celebrations, family gatherings, university graduations, professionals at work and other happy moments involving African-Australian community members.

What has been overlooked in the metaphorical dogpiling on the African-Australian community is the multitude of benefits multiculturalism has brought, and continues to bring, to our country.

Just consider new research from CGU showing that one in three Australian small businesses is run by people who migrated to our country. This equates to at least 620,000 migrant-owned businesses across the country, employing around 1.4 million people.

Or look at SSI’s Community Innovation Fund. In January, we allocated $50,000 to fund six projects that support refugee communities in south-west Sydney.

What is unique about this funding allocation is that all initiatives selected are driven by the communities they support. An intensive consultation process was undertaken with the community to directly inform the fund’s selection criteria. It aimed to understand the community’s hopes and challenges and provide a narrative about what kind of community its members want to live in.

Take, for example, the Chaldean League of NSW’s technology support project. This aims to help newly arrived refugees to develop the skills, knowledge and confidence to navigate online forms in English for services that are crucial to their everyday lives, such as online banking or Centrelink.

The project was developed by Raghda Aziz, a volunteer caseworker with the Chaldean League. Raghda arrived in Australia in 2011 with her family after fleeing persecution in Iraq. She has seen how simple mistakes on forms can affect people’s lives and is now known for her expertise and willingness to support newly arrived members of the community.

Raghda is not a unique example. While the everyday social, economic and cultural contributions new arrivals make to our communities do not make the headlines, they do form a critical part of our country’s multifaceted multicultural identity.

Captured is Muthana one of the regular Friendship Garden’s gardeners and his daughter. 

Over the past three years, SSI has welcomed people from many diverse backgrounds to the Friendship Garden at Auburn Centre for Community.

The existing garden brings together locals for community gardening, horticulture courses and community development initiatives, however it’s limited in what it offers to people living with disability.

The sensory garden will foster community cohesion and inclusiveness, enabling children of all abilities to learn and express themselves freely.

The garden features were chosen through a consultation with the garden designers and a large group of children. The design incorporates frog ponds, spiralled textured paths and sand pits that simulate participation in sensory based play.

SSI’s disability and settlement programs will connect local families to the garden and engage established networks to offer therapeutic intervention, play-based activities and community development initiatives.

SSI has engaged a diverse group of community participants at its Friendship Garden, including participants like Muthana who are passionate about all things gardening.

Muthana is originally from Iraq and came to Australia on a humanitarian visa from Syria. As he is missing a hand, his first touchstone with SSI was via the Ability Links NSW program, which supports people with disability, their family and carers.

Muthana had been a horticulturalist by trade back in Iraq and was referred to SSI’s short course in horticulture as he was eager to re-qualify his skills here in Australia. He began the course last July to help ignite his own business.

“SSI has helped me complete my study in an activity that truly motivates me, and I have been able to form many new friendships in the garden while improving my English,” Muthana said.

Muthana attends a weekly garden session, where a group of gardeners maintain the garden together, followed by a shared multicultural lunch. After lunch they reconvene for an English class run by a garden volunteer who taught English at ‘Read, Write and Spell’, a pre-literacy course for adult asylum seekers and refugees in Ultimo.

Diana Nguyen, SSI Community Engagement Practitioner, has facilitated the onboarding of participants like Muthana into the Friendship Garden and said that it makes a massive difference to the integration of newcomers into local communities.

“Initiatives like our Friendship Garden allow new community members to do something therapeutic like gardening and form new friendships whilst simultaneously improving their English literacy,” Ms Nguyen said.

The construction of the sensory garden will commence in 2018, and once completed will launch with a grand opening and celebrations.

SSI staff captured with gardeners at the Friendship Garden where the new sensory garden will be installed. 

We’re all so busy at this time of year that it can be hard to find the head space to pause and reflect on the year that has passed — what we’ve achieved, what we’ve left undone, what has changed in our wider world.

Global displacement continued over the course of the year as civil wars in places like Yemen and Syria drove families from their homelands. Closer to home, we have seen the growing Rohingya refugee crisis in Myanmar, while conditions for refugees in Manus Island have deteriorated following the closure of the offshore refugee processing centre.

In reflecting on the year that has passed, it can be difficult not to dwell on the families who are still in exile from their homelands or people like the Rohingya, who remain trapped in a precarious limbo of statelessness.

But we also have much to be thankful for — and it’s those things that my mind comes back to when I’m tempted to believe the world is a darker place at the end of 2017 than it was at the start.

On a professional level, there’s a lot to be thankful for. In 2017, SSI won many new contracts to deliver programs that will expand our work with individuals and families who are at a point in their lives when they’re experiencing a vulnerability.

On a personal level, I’m thankful for the successes the year has brought me. When my colleague nominated me for the Telstra Business Women’s Awards, the idea of being selected as a state finalist seemed way outside the realm of possibilities — let alone that I would be named the 2017 Telstra Australian Business Woman of the Year.

I’m incredibly grateful for the career and personal growth trajectory that has taken me from the daughter of migrants, growing up in Sydney’s western suburbs, to being selected among my peers from across the country for national recognition that will give me a platform to highlight the issues faced by newly arrived communities.

As a member of the wider Australian community, I’m thankful that we are finishing 2017 in a country where all people now have the right to marry the person they love, regardless of gender or sexual orientation.

The evening after the ‘yes’ result was announced, as I watched footage of Sydneysiders celebrating the win in Prince Alfred Park, embracing each other and dancing to John Paul Young’s Love is in the Air, it was hard to feel anything but optimistic for our shared future.

As the year wraps up, I encourage you too to dwell on those bright spots from across 2017. For all the lows, the year has brought with it many highs. It is those that I feel truly thankful for.

While this time of year is replete with happy gatherings of friends and family, it’s worth remembering that not everyone is fortunate to have their loved ones nearby. Some people are separated from family by war. Others, for one reason or another, lack the critical social support systems that many of us take for granted.

During the festive season, I encourage you to reach out to these neighbours, colleagues and acquaintances. Invite them to share a meal or to pop in for a cup of tea. Small acts of kindness can have a big impact on people, especially those who are feeling lonely or isolated.

Have a safe and happy holiday season.

CEO Violet Roumeliotis

“I’m glad that I’m here. I had to leave my family and I’m alone, but I’m happy I’m here. I feel freedom in Australia,” she said. “The first friends I made were Aussies. They’re just regular people but they’ve helped me. They also learned how to say ‘hello’ in Arabic!”

Despite arriving in Australia with no English, Ms Al Askar has already found paid employment in a games store. She is also studying English with the aim of resuming her work as a graphic designer.

Coming to Australia by herself posed a number of challenges for Ms Al Askar — the first of which was trying to get by on Centrelink payments while she found work.

“SSI helped me to figure out how to use this payment for the amount of time I needed and they supported me while I learned that,” she said.

SSI’s Humanitarian Settlement Program, which supports refugees through the initial stages of settlement, takes a client-centred approach to case management that is tailored to the needs and strengths of individuals, including women living without family members.

“SSI understood my situation. I’m alone here,” Ms Al Askar. “When I first arrived, I didn’t know any English. Now step by step, I’m starting to speak English. I now have friends from all different countries and cultures too. I talk to them in English too. Sometimes I don’t understand, but I try different sentences to make my friends understand me. We try our best to understand each other.”

Ms Al Askar’s long-term aim for life in Australia is to improve her English and “just to be myself”.

“I lost my family. I lost my job. I lost myself. When I needed to make a goal for my new life in Australia, I needed first to learn who I was. It’s a simple goal. I want to refresh myself and build my new identity,” she said.

“I see in Australia a lot of examples of people from different cultures and countries who’ve spent 10 years here learning English and new skills and they’re now helping me to learn English. One day, I hope to be like them.”

The federal government recently selected SSI as the regional NSW provider of the new Humanitarian Settlement Program (HSP), which supports refugees from the moment they arrive at the airport until they are established in the community.

SSI will expand operations to support its work in regional areas, including in Coffs Harbour, where Federal Member for Cowper Luke Hartsuyker MP launched the new SSI office on Friday December 1.

SSI HSP Manager, Yamamah Agha, said the organisation was committed to partnering with the local community and services to support refugees through the early days of life in Australia.

“At SSI, we recognise the critical role the community plays in successful settlement. Community members help new arrivals to feel welcome in Australia and to build the sense of belonging that becomes a foundation for their new lives here,” she said.

“Community support can take many forms. It might be volunteering, offering a friendly smile at the supermarket or holding an event to welcome new arrivals. Only by working in partnership can we hope to support refugees to reach their full potential in Australia.”

An SSI refugee settlement team is now also set up in Newcastle, and next year, SSI will launch an Armidale office to cater for the newly announced settlement hub in the regional city.

Ms Agha said settling refugees in regional areas had dual benefits for both refugees and the communities welcoming them.

“New arrivals make important cultural and social contributions, such as reviving regional schools and countering population decline,” she said.

“Refugee resettlement also has economic benefits. With the population growth, comes an increased need for teachers, doctors and other services to support an expanding community. In the Victorian town of Nhill, for example, the net monetary gain of resettling 160 refugees over a five-year period exceeded $41 million.”

Click hereClick here for contact details for SSI’s new regional offices.