Mr Qoja (R) arrived in Australia with his wife and children earlier this year.
Rafi Qoja, 31, was a highly esteemed physician in Iraq before his home town was occupied by rebel forces in 2014, prompting his family to flee in fear of their safety.
Mr Qoja and his family spent more than two years in northern Iraq and Lebanon, where he volunteered as a doctor before their visas were accepted in Australia.
“I’ll never forget when we received the call from the UN,”Mr Qoja recalled. “We had lost hope but suddenly we were so excited. Our lives were saved in an instant.”
Mr Qoja’s family was connected with a case manager who helped to provide a range of support such as a Basic Households Goods package, and community orientation to help his family connect with their new community.
“One of the case managers from SSI was from the same village we’re from,” he said. “She spoke the same language and she understood what we were going through. She helped us to start our lives here.”
SSI also introduced Mr Qoja to a skills qualifications workshop and connected him with a local doctor who gave him practical advice to kick start his career in Australia.
After sitting an initial course in July, Mr Qoja is now preparing to sit a medical exam in November with the hope of becoming a registered practitioner with the Australian Medical Council.
Mr Qoja admits it will be a long process with “many hurdles” but after years of uncertainty, he’s looking forward to the challenge.
“I like my job as a doctor because I want to help people – anywhere in the world,” Mr Qoja said. “Now – more than ever – I want to help others, just like they have helped us. We want to share our thanks with this country.”
Life in Australia has been bittersweet for Mr Qoja and his family, whose relatives remain in Lebanon and Iraq. But he says it’s impossible to put a price on safety and freedom.
“Our country destroyed our culture and civilisation, and we suffered just belonging in Iraq,” he said. “We feel human for the first time, and we feel welcomed. We are the lucky ones to live in Australia when other parts of the world are suffering, and we want to give back to this country that helped us when we were in need.”
Mr Qoja is looking forward to what the future holds for his two children, aged two and four.
“We want to be part of the community, but to keep our traditions,” he said. “It’s important for kids to maintain their culture because there are so many advantages. We don’t want to isolate ourselves and we don’t want to forget our background. We want to share our culture with others.”
Mr Qoja’s family was supported by SSI’s Humanitarian Settlement Services program, which provides essential support to refugees and humanitarian entrants in their first 6–12 months in Australia. Support services including airport pickups, housing support, community orientation to help new arrivals connect with their community, and specialised case management to help them connect with essential services and support.
SSI is committed to ensuring that people in vulnerable communities in NSW are supported and resourced to fulfill their potential as members of the Australian community.
Humanitarian Settlement Services
The event, ‘Cultural Diversity and Leadership: The Way Forward‘, on Monday, September 19, came hot on the heels of a recent report showing fewer than five per cent of ASX 200 company CEOs are from non-European or Anglo-Celtic backgrounds.
Diversity specialists told an audience of more than 70 SSI staff and supporters that people from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds were just as capable as their peers, but do not enjoy the same inherent advantages.
Westpac Senior Manager Inclusion and Diversity Mariam Veiszadeh said reverse discrimination was one way employers can offset that privilege.
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results,” she said. “If we want to see cultural diversity, you have to do something different. You cannot expect society just to change on its own.
“You do have to do something that is deemed drastic by some. That’s where targets come into it when we’ve talked about gender diversity – and I think we’ve shown over time that there is an inherent issue that needs addressing. No amount of lip service is going to change that. You have to show bold leadership.”
In order to get more culturally diverse leaders in Australia, both businesses and individuals must challenge the concept of leadership itself, Ms Veiszadeh said.
“If leadership means that only a man can do it – that only a guy working 24/7, with zero time for his family, can be a leader – we should be challenging that and saying, ‘no, that’s not what everyone should be aspiring to’,” Ms Veiszadeh said. “The issue isn’t about changing yourself to fit in. . . but about changing the system to accommodate everyone.”
One employer already walking the talk on cultural diversity is Allianz Australia, which earlier this year partnered with SSI on an employment program that will see the insurance company offer permanent roles to up to 10 people of refugee background each year.
Allianz Diversity and Sustainability Manager Charis Martin-Ross said a lack of data was one of the big barriers to a more culturally diverse leadership pool in Australia, because employers need these figures in order to assess how their organisation stacks up against other businesses.
“The focus for me at the moment is around information sharing,” she said. “My call to my industry peers is to share your information. There is a dearth of information and data about diversity at the moment.”
“Allianz Australia has made a significant commitment to cultural diversity. We’re certainly not doing it perfectly – and we’ve got a long way to go – but I’m really excited by what the data we’ve collected can do for us, because it really opens up channels in terms of tracking, measuring, comparing and making decisions that will further promote the level of cultural diversity in our organisation.”
Also speaking on the panel, Dai Le – the founder of a social enterprise that champions diverse leadership, DAWN – said the work organisations like hers do was only part of the solution to the issue of cultural diversity in Australia’s leadership ranks.
“It’s up to you all as individuals to drive that change inside because that will help us on the outside as well,” she said. “We need to believe in ourselves, and we need to make sure that we don’t feel inferior. If we feel inferior, then we can’t challenge the system.”
Without employees also agitating for change, it will take much longer for Australia’s leaders to reflect the country’s workforce, Ms Le said.
“Once you start to call it out and people become more aware of it, organisations are going to take note,” she said.
“Despite what we’ve heard tonight about the barriers [to more culturally diverse leadership], I’m actually quite optimistic because I see these barriers as opportunities. I jump over these barriers rather than see them as something that will push me down,” added Ms Le.
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Allianz Australia and not-for-profit humanitarian organisation Settlement Services International (SSI) are offering the scholarships to help refugees settle in the community.
Forty-six scholarships, ranging from $500 to $5,000, will be offered in five categories, including primary and secondary school, vocational training, tertiary qualification and skills recognition.
A recipient of a scholarship from SSI in the 2015 round of funding, Simon Issa, 20, said the money had been a huge help as he started his Higher School Certificate. He has since applied to two Sydney universities to study medicine in 2017.
“When we left Lebanon, where we had been refugees for two years, to come to Australia we had a very big financial problem,” Mr Issa said. “We had to sell everything to come here. We got some help but it wasn’t enough to cover my education.
“Everything I had studied overseas, in Syria, I had to do again here but in another language (English),” Mr Issa said. “That was the hardest part; I had to translate every word from Arabic to English. But I’m getting better at English, slowly.
“The scholarship helped me a lot. I bought lots of guides (text books) for all of my subjects and a computer — that helped a lot.”
Mr Issa was not allowed to continue his high school studies while a refugee in Lebanon, so he worked two jobs every day for the two years. Mornings he worked in a shoe shop and nights in a chocolate factory.
“When my parents found out about the scholarship, they were so proud; I could see it in my father’s eyes,” Mr Issa said. “Dad was so upset when I couldn’t go to school in Lebanon.
“I’ve applied now to two universities to study medicine and medical science. The main aim is to be a doctor.”
SSI CEO Violet Roumeliotis said that from her experience, as supported by research, refugees who settle in Australia have a high motivation to work but this didn’t automatically lead to employment.
“Refugees who lack Australian work experience, affordable options for the recognition of their skills and qualifications, and limited access to English language tuition, face barriers in the employment market,” Ms Roumeliotis said.
“The SSI Allianz Scholarships will reduce the financial barriers experienced by refugees as they participate in the NSW education system.”
Allianz Australia’s Managing Director, Niran Peiris said he was proud to help refugees receive an education and contribute to business.
“This scholarship program is about offering the support and opportunity for refugees to really make a difference at school, work and in the community.
“This scholarship reflects Allianz’s absolute commitment to diversity. We know that a diverse workforce is a better workforce.”
Earlier this year Allianz recruited nine new employees from Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Vietnam, who came to Australia as refugees, asylum seekers and migrants.
“As I said at the start of this partnership, Allianz and SSI both have a vision of playing a key support role in the community in the areas of education, employment and addressing social justice issues,” Ms Roumeliotis said.
“Today, I’m proud of what that partnership has achieved so far, which is a new future for the new Allianz recruits and, through these scholarships, 46 more people will be given the opportunity that education offers,” Ms Roumeliotis added.
For more information and application forms, please go to ssi.org.au/scholarships
Application forms for each category can be downloaded from the category page. The application deadline is October 31, 2016, with successful applicants being notified in December.
SSI Allianz Refugee Scholarships
For more information and interview opportunities, contact:
Allianz
Elise Marley-Wallace
Public Relations and Social Media Manager
Market Management
Allianz Australia Insurance Ltd | 2 Market St, Sydney NSW 2000
Ph: +61 2 8258 5747 | Fax +61 2 9390 6676 | Mobile 0406751336
Email: elise.marley-wallace@allianz.com.au
Allianz – Employer of Choice for Gender Equality 2014 – 2015
Allianz – Employer of Choice for Women (EOWA) 2009 – 2013
Settlement Services International
Angela Calabrese
Executive Manager
Corporate Communications
Settlement Services International
Ph: +61 2 8799 6700 I Mobile 0401 284 828
Email: acalabrese@ssi.org.au
This is a bleak reflection of the diversity landscape in Australia, but how can we use this knowledge to drive positive change? How do we start to move forward?
Diversity specialists from the corporate and not-for-profit sectors will attempt to answer these questions and more at an upcoming SSI Speakers’ Series event.
Register now for your chance to hear our distinguished panel of speakers share their thoughts about how organisations can move forward and improve cultural diversity within Australian leadership.
Dai Le. Mariam Veiszadeh. Charis Martin Ross.
Guest speakers
Mariam Veiszadeh
Senior Manager, Inclusion & Diversity, Westpac Group
After a decade long career as a lawyer, Mariam Veiszadeh recently had a career change, joining the Westpac Inclusion & Diversity team as a Senior Manager – a move that allowed her to more neatly combine her passions into her day job. Mariam has long been a vocal champion of the rights of asylum seekers and refugees as well other minority groups. She is an Ambassador for Welcome to Australia and a sought-after opinion writer, keynote speaker, social commentator, and diversity and inclusion advocate.
Dai Le
Founder & CEO, DAWN
Dai is a former journalist, film-maker and broadcaster with the ABC. Through her social enterprise, DAWN, an organisation that champions diverse leadership in the Australian workspace, Dai is challenging the status quo by harnessing the potential of Australians of culturally diverse backgrounds and unlocking their potential to be leaders in their field. Dai is currently a board member for Multicultural NSW, where she was previously the Community Commissioner.
Charis Martin-Ross
Diversity and Sustainability Manager, Allianz Australia Insurance
Charis has developed her career as an organisational psychologist, working across global consultancies before specialising in financial services. She is fascinated by what makes people tick and how organisations can positively impact the lives of employees. Charis’s transition into sustainability is a product of her sense of social justice and advocacy for the commercial value of shaping cultures in which employees feel part of a community. Her work at Allianz is her most fulfilling yet, not least the opportunity to develop a program that provides permanent employment to refugees and asylum seekers.
Facilitator
Danuta Kozaki
Danuta Kozaki is a senior ABC News reporter and producer. She is a specialist in multicultural stories, and previously worked at the UK Commission for Racial Equality and the Australian Human Rights Commission.Danuta will be a facilitator at the Speakers’ Series event on September 19 as an individual in her own capacity.
About the SSI Speakers’ Series
During 2016, Settlement Services International (SSI) is hosting a series of talks and panel discussions on current refugee and asylum seeker issues and related topics. The SSI Speakers’ Series aims to inform, connect and challenge SSI staff, stakeholders and the wider community by providing opportunities for discussion that enhance knowledge and awareness about relevant issues impacting the organisation’s clients and their communities.
When: Monday, September 19, 2016, from 6pm to 7.30pm (AEST)
Where: Settlement Services International – Level 2 158 Liverpool Road, Ashfield, NSW 2131
The news followed an outpouring of grief from people across the country – and indeed all around the world – over a heartbreaking photograph of Alan Kurdi, a toddler who died on the edges of the Mediterranean Sea while trying to reach safety in Europe.
The image of the three-year-old Syrian refugee marked a tipping point in public sentiment about the growing number of forcibly displaced people globally, which was quickly reaching a record high.
It forced people to consider their own ethics; to reflect on what right and wrong means in a world where someone is so desperate to reach safety that they feel they have no other option but to entrust the lives of their family to a stranger with a boat.
Over the past year, there has been a lot of public reflection on the additional intake of Syrian and Iraqi refugees and what this means for Australia.
As one of the leading providers of the federally funded Humanitarian Settlement Services program, SSI is right at the frontline. In the past year alone, we’ve helped thousands of new arrivals to begin their lives in Australia; and this number is rapidly increasing each day, as more and more refugees from Syria and Iraq arrive.
Our job is to help refugees navigate the early stages of life in a new country, by providing essential support such as accommodation and food packages, and helping refugees to find their feet and connect with networks in their local community. We also play a massive role in supporting these new arrivals to find work, which they identify as their top settlement goal.
Ethics are an important part of that service. Every SSI staff member and volunteer is accountable for their work and upholds professional practices – something that continues well after refugees have graduated from our service. This integrity is critical to ensuring vulnerable new community members receive the right support while working their way towards independence.
Last week, one of our newest MPs, Linda Burney, drove home for me exactly why it is so important to adhere to a set of moral and ethical principles.
Ms Burney is the first Aboriginal woman to be elected to the House of Representatives. Ms Burney wove her heritage throughout her maiden speech to Parliament, explaining that the speech was an opportunity to set out “what has made you, what you believe in and what you stand for”.
And she did just that. Ms Burney spoke candidly about the need for constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians and about the wrongs committed against Aboriginal people since European settlement, touching on everything from massacres in colonial Australia to the discrimination she herself has experienced.
As the child of an unmarried white mother and an Indigenous father, Ms Burney has faced her fair share of prejudice but as she put it: “these experiences have been the catalyst for my subsequent life as an advocate for education and social justice. The Aboriginal part of my story is important. It is the core of who I am, but I will not be stereotyped and I will not be pigeonholed”.
This sentiment is one I regularly hear from the refugees SSI supports; there is no denying that the experience of fleeing your home country is life changing, but being a refugee is not the be-all and end-all of a person’s identity.
Whether you’ve spent one year or 10 years living as a refugee, you remain a multi-faceted person with potential that extends far beyond a period in which you’ve been forced to seek sanctuary in another country.
As we welcome more refugees to our shores, it’s important that we retain our focus on integrity and on our shared humanity. Behind each refugee label is a person like you or I – or Alan Kurdi – who has left behind everything they know in search of safety.
Anita Yetunde Adejumo had been looking for a new volunteering opportunity when she stumbled across the Friendship Garden – a joint initiative between SSI and Cumberland City Council that brings together the people SSI supports and local community members for regular gardening mornings and workshops.
“I liked the idea of that because I did a little bit of gardening back home in Nigeria before coming here and I’ve lost touch with it,” she said.
“We had a little garden and my mum made us plant and do the weeding. I didn’t really realise how much I liked it until I started helping out at the Friendship Garden.
Many of the gardeners who gather each week at the Auburn Centre for Community have come from countries far away from Australia, and the garden becomes like another home, Ms Adejumo said.
“The first day I came was very inspiring. People were very open and everyone encouraged me to learn. It was very welcoming. I was able to join in the discussion – the very first day I joined they welcomed my suggestions. That, for me, is what keeps bringing me back,” she said. “It’s somewhere you belong to. It has a family vibe.”
The Friendship Garden is a core part of SSI’s self-funded Community Engagement program, which runs events and activities that help participants form strong links in the community and feel better connected. These events help new arrivals to build social connections and to reduce isolation, which can improve their physical and mental wellbeing.
Each week brings a different mix of locals and volunteers from a range of backgrounds to the Friendship Garden. But one thing that remains constant is the comradery, Ms Adejumo said.
“The ‘friendship’ in the name Friendship Garden is really true,” she said. “Everyone is from different cultures but we still have connections. We chat, we eat. We usually have a Persian dish, or people bring in things to share.
“When I’m stressed, it’s somewhere I look forward to coming to relax a bit. You chat to people and get to know something about other countries.”
Not that the Friendship Garden is all eating and socialising; a lot of hard work goes into producing the fruits and vegetables that participants harvest and enjoy at the end of each session.
“We get to learn a lot. It’s not like we’re just in one part of the garden doing the same thing every day. We get to move around different sections, planting, weeding, watering, harvesting,” Ms Adejumo said. “You plant tomatoes and then see them come up. It’s a nice feeling. You can track the progress and see the results almost instantly.”
The garden caters for all levels of skills and experience, and people engaged in SSI programs as well as members of the community are welcome.
“I would definitely encourage anybody to come here,” Ms Adejumo said. “Even if you are not into gardening per se, the garden itself is inspiring interesting, and very relaxing. It’s like a big family.”
Participants at the “Every Child Has a Culture” forum in Bankstown recently.
The forum was organised to assist foster care agencies and their caseworkers to better understand and respond to the cultural needs of children and young people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds (CALD) in out-of-home care in NSW, with a particular focus on permanency planning.
SSI Executive Manager, Families and Inclusion, Stephen O’Neill, said that the maintenance of a child’s cultural background while in out-of-home care was critical to their sense of belonging and their development.
SSI Multicultural Foster Care — an accredited foster care agency specialising in placing children of a CALD background with foster carers of the same background where possible — has an innovative cultural care model, intrinsic to how the service works with foster carers, birth families and children in care.
“SSI is leading the conversation about ways to improve and expand caseworker thinking and responsiveness, and to improve the ways we connect with and understand the needs of children in care,” Mr O’Neill said.
The forum was organised by SSI, NSW Family and Community Services (FACS), the Association of Children’s Welfare Agencies, Connecting Carers and Stretch-a-Family.
Penny Hood, Director of Innovation, Co-Design and Implementation, with FACS, led an interactive presentation on the new Care and Cultural Care template; a collaborative project between the department, NGOs and the Children’s Court, which was designed to ensure that culture is at the forefront for children in care.
“Mandating cultural planning in the Care Plan for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and children from multicultural backgrounds is one way that the sector can enhance support of a child’s cultural identity and further their sense of belonging to family and community,” Ms Hood said.
The challenges and complexities of casework with children from CALD backgrounds and their foster carers was highlighted, but there were many case studies and experiences shared, including the importance of Life Story Work (LSW), working with bilingual and bicultural support staff and collaborating with CALD community organisations and leaders, to assist in developing strategies to overcome those challenges.
An emotional tribute was made to SSI bilingual caseworker Samia Hawat, who passed away in December 2015. Ms Hawat’s Life Story Work was exceptional and she employed strategies including the use of cooking, apps and artwork to achieve significant connections and progress with children in care and with their birth parents. The tribute included moving testimonials from children and carers that she had supported.
More than 70 participants from a range of services within the out-of-home care sector attended the forum to hear from the Children’s’ Court Registrar and Clinic Assessor, and staff from SSI and other foster care agencies.
This August, a team of SSI employees and people seeking asylum will undertake the 14km run from Sydney’s CBD to Bondi Beach. Supporting the team will be everyday fundraising heroes like SSI case manager Rayila Maimaiti, whose friends and supporters are donating to sponsor her run.
Ms Maimaiti was motivated to participate from her experience working with people seeking asylum, who often face ongoing uncertainty about their future in Australia.
“It’s a great way for different communities to work together for a good cause. If one thing affects one person, of course it directly or indirectly affects all of us,” she said.
The Uyghur-born case manager draws on her own experience of moving to a new country to better support the people seeking asylum with whom she works.
“It’s quite difficult coming from a very different background. You have to adjust to a different culture, language, surroundings, friendships — everything is very different,” she said.
“None of my family members are here but I do have quite a few good friends and they have supported me when I was in difficult times. I think that kind of support is very important for migrants, refugees and asylum seekers.”
Ms Maimaiti believes it’s also important to support refugees and people seeking asylum through fundraising initiatives such as City2Surf.
“The prosperity of a society relies on different types of people working together, respecting each other and helping each other in difficult times. Asylum seekers and refugees are very vulnerable in many ways and they need some sort of support and assistance,” Ms Maimaiti said.
SSI’s City2Surf team is aiming to raise $10,000 for SSI’s Community Engagement program, which organises events and activities that give refugees and people seeking asylum opportunities to connect with others in similar situations and build a sense of belonging.
“I would definitely encourage anyone considering it to join our team and support SSI because we do work with a lot of very vulnerable communities. Supporting SSI will directly help the people we work with and make Australia a better place,” Ms Maimaiti said.
Whether a runner or a walker, everyone is welcome to join the SSI team or donate to support the cause. Click here for more information on City2Surf.
He also teaches children how to play the ude – a traditional Middle Eastern instrument – free of charge, and when he can find the time, he plays soccer with his two-year-old son.
“We miss our country – our friends, our life and our family – but we are safe here. Our eyes are open in Australia when they were closed in Syria,” he said.
Mr Georges is among thousands of refugees who have arrived in NSW after the Federal Government announced in September last year that it would welcome an additional 12,000 refugees from Syria and Iraq.
Settlement Services International (SSI), the largest not-for-profit humanitarian settlement organisation in Australia, has settled over 1,000 refugees and humanitarian entrants in recent months, with the number expected to increase steadily in the months ahead.
Like many new arrivals, Mr Georges is still adjusting to life in Australia, but he says the support his family received in the initial months was a vital part of his settlement journey.
“Australia reminds me of Syria, but so many things are different,” he said. “Many people have helped my family and the community has been very supportive.”
SSI’s Humanitarian Settlement Support (HSS) program for newly arrived refugees and humanitarian entrants picked Mr Georges and his family up from the airport upon their arrival from Syria and took them to short-term accommodation where they lived for four weeks. The HSS program provides ongoing support while the family settles in their new home.
His family took part in a community orientation program covering topics such as how to apply for rental properties and search for schools and health care services, and they were connected with a case manager who provided essential support in the initial six months.
With the support of SSI, Mr Georges recently secured a full-time position with a reputable insurance company in Sydney’s CBD – an opportunity that has allowed him to focus on his long-term career goals.
“We are safe and happy here – we feel like we’re part of society which is something we lost in Syria,” he said.
SSI’s Manager Humanitarian Settlement Services Yamamah Agha applauded Mr Georges’s resilience and tenacity, and highlighted the importance of supporting newly arrived refugees, particularly in the early stages of settlement.
“Refugees bring a wealth of skills and talents to Australia, but it’s important they are supported to develop the knowledge and community connections they need to live independently in society,” she said.
“Settlement is not a linear process; it takes time and requires a commitment from the community. But successful resettlement delivers profound social and economic benefits to the broader community, which makes us stronger as a nation.”
Mr Georges is continuing his studies and enjoying family life after his wife gave birth to their second child, Marvin, in late May.
Like many Syrians, the ongoing war forced Mr Batal and his family to flee to neighbouring Lebanon in 2011, where he first gained experience as a business owner.
“I had a pizza shop in Lebanon with the same name. I had plenty of customers and many of those customers were Australian people, who visited Lebanon and would come to my shop. They told me, ‘if you open in Australia with the same pizza, we’ll come to you’,” he said.
Now the proud owner of Miami Pizza in Bankstown, Mr Batal said it hasn’t all been smooth sailing since he resettled in Australia with his wife and two children in June 2014.
“Before opening this store, I worked for two months in a Turkish kebab store for a low wage. I wanted to find out how people think here and what they like. I didn’t want to open a shop with no idea, because it’s a different country,” he said.
Mr Batal wasn’t familiar with Australian pizza menu staples like ‘Meatlovers’ and ‘Supreme’ pizzas but gradually, through customer feedback, a menu revamp and his own field research, he found success with his new business.
“Everything in the beginning is very hard,” he said. “In Syria, in Lebanon, in Australia — everything is hard. But when you start, you find that you can do it. Everybody has to do it themselves though; you can’t wait for someone else to do it for you. A small start is better than nothing.”
Settlement Services International (SSI) supported Mr Batal and his family during their initial settlement in Australia, helping them to access essential services, providing accommodation assistance, and supporting the family to develop their independence.
“When I wanted to make a business, I called SSI,” Mr atal said. “They sent me to a four-day course in Parramatta on how to start a business. Then they connected me with a business advisor, who helped me to learn how I can start a business.
“About a week ago, someone from SSI called me just seeing what I need and how I’m feeling. It’s important to have someone who cares how you feel. It makes me more comfortable knowing I have people behind me.”
While things are going well for Mr Batal, he’s still living with daily reminders of what life is like for his friends and family who remain in Syria.
“I feel sad and when you have sad feelings, it makes it hard to work. Sometimes I’m working but my mind is on my family and Syria,” he said.
Just recently, however, Mr Batal received the good news that his mother, father and brother will be joining him in Australia, and he hopes they will help him achieve his goal of turning Miami Pizza into a franchise.
“It’s hard, but not impossible. It will need hard work and time to make it happen,” he said.