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
SSI CEO Violet Roumeliotis
Mr Turnbull’s commitment to provide a further $130 million to support peace-building and assistance to displaced people, and resettling refugees currently residing in Costa Rica, are also very positive outcomes from the Leaders’ Summit on Refugees in New York.
With conflicts continuing unabated in many parts of the world, we can not just standby and watch as the number of displaced people and refugees continues to grow. I’m very proud that Australia is continuing a long tradition of providing a new home for the displaced and war weary.
We have to put aside comments by those who focus on the negative and conflate terrorists with refugees; this creates fear and doubt in people’s minds towards to men, women and children in their hour of need.
Hearing those voices of fear in our community is disappointing, particularly in light of the very successful settlement experience of around 700,000 refugees since the end of World War II. SSI will continue to counter these voices with the many positive stories of integration and social cohesion that organisations like ours encounter every day.
Some people may also try to criticise refugees by claiming they are over-reliant on welfare payments, however, those claims are not supported by the medium and long-term analysis.
More than 30 per cent of all refugees supported by SSI in NSW over the 12 months to August 31 found paid employment within their first year in Australia. Almost 70 started businesses.
All of our evidence shows that people arriving in Australia as refugees integrate well and contribute greatly to Australia’s cultural life and economy. We look forward to welcoming all who come and supporting them to overcome their past experience and make the most of their new opportunities.
Violet Roumeliotis
SSI CEO
Media Enquiries
SSI Manager Corporate Communications Angela Calabrese, Ph: 0401 284 828
SSI Online Communications Coordinator Callan Lawrence, Ph: 0478 156 491
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.
Bpi is currently working in a restaurant while he finishes high school, but his ultimate goal is to be a teacher – something he believes could be difficult to achieve.
The 22-year-old is hardworking, community minded and, on paper, the ideal candidate for a teaching role. But he’s also facing challenges that some of his peers aren’t.
Originally from Burma, Bpi is from the Karen minority and has only been living in Australia for two years, prior to which he lived in a refugee camp in Thailand. Even at that point, however, Bpi was working towards his goal, giving basic lessons in English and maths to other young Karen children in the camp.
“We have very low levels of English in my country, so to teach English is very hard,” he said. “I hope that one day I have good English and can go back to where I came from and teach children. I want to help other people as much as I can.”
“I also want to have a really good future here. I’m going to be compared to other people, so I need more support, for English especially.”
Enter SSI’s Youth@Work program – an innovative initiative that connects young workers of refugee or migrant background with mentors who can support them to reach their employment goals.
Bpi’s mentor, Diana, is an experienced teaching professional who is able to answer his questions, offer career advice and generally support him in his quest to become a teacher.
“Diana has very good experience because she’s taught international students for decades,” Bpi said. “She told me about teachers’ aides, which I hadn’t heard of. So I might try to be a teacher’s aide first and then get fully qualified to become a teacher.”
In addition to helping Bpi reach his long-term goals, Diana is also assisting with his more immediate needs, including homework support and helping him to improve his English language skills.
Under the Youth@Work program – which is funded by the Australian Government Department of Employment as part of the Empowering YOUth Initiatives – the duo will work together for up to six months to ensure Bpi has the tools to retain his current job and work towards his career goals.
“Being mentored means I’m getting help to overcome my employment challenges and to reach my future career goals. I think it’s invaluable to receive support from an experienced person,” he said.
Youth@Work is currently looking for more young people of refugee or migrant background who are interested in getting one-on-one support and advice to help them to reach their employment goals. Full details are at the link below:
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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
Deputy federal Labor leader Tanya Plibersek and Brad Hazzard, NSW Minister for Family & Community Services and Minister for Social Housing, with SSI staff at the SSI/ACWA Foster care Week event.
SSI Multicultural Foster Care is a specialist out-of-home care service for children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds that has a rigorous process by which it matches children with a suitable carer.
Mr Ghassan Noujaim, Operations Manager of Out-of-Home Care, said many factors are taken into consideration when finding the right home for a child in care.
“We look at the child’s cultural connections at the time of placement, their first language, and the relationship with their siblings, among many other things,” Mr Noujaim said.
SSI also researches the home situation of a potential carer, their family and community support, and their cultural and linguistic background to ensure that the two are compatible and that this is the best possible scenario for the child, he said.
“Cultural matching is very important, and we believe this helps to achieve the best long-term outcomes for a child in care, but in the end the most important thing is to find a safe, stable and nurturing environment for the child to be in, whether it’s short or long term.”
On Sunday September 11, more than 200 SSI foster carers and children in care gathered for the annual Foster Care Picnic Day in the Western Sydney Parklands to celebrate the start of Foster Care Week.
Hosted each year by the Association of Children’s Welfare Agencies (ACWA) with extensive support from foster care agencies including SSI, the 2016 picnic was ‘superhero’ themed in recognition of the dedication and commitment foster carers offer to children and young people in need.
ACWA Acting CEO Dr Wendy Foote said the theme reflected the ultimate rewards that could flow from giving children the gift of a loving home.
“The rewards of fostering are enormous, and of course providing secure loving care to children can be the one thing that makes a difference in the child’s life and ensures their future,” Dr Foote said.
The picnic was a chance for some children and families to catch up with siblings who are supported by other foster care agencies, and everyone enjoyed activities such as face painting, jumping castles, farm animal petting and hair braiding.
Mr Ghassan said picnic goers, including staff, all had a fantastic day and enjoyed sharing superhero stories.
“It’s such a privilege to work with these wonderful people, and it’s a really special community to be a part of,” he said. “Foster carers are such a vital part of the team that works together to support children in care.”
Children need care for different reasons and for different lengths of time. Sometimes it’s until they can return home to their biological family, and other times it’s until they reach the age of 18.
Foster carers can be single, married, in a same sex couple, empty nesters, working or not working. The most important qualities to have are empathy, perseverance and a commitment to support the child with a stable and caring home for as long as they need it.
SSI is always available to discuss foster caring with people who are interested.
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.
Head chefs Sangeetha Srinivasan and Subadra Velayudan – who work in SSI’s People and Culture and SRSS teams, respectively – whipped up two curries, a dessert and a salad, but the star of the day was the humble cashew nut.
“Cashew nuts are a very common ingredient in Sri Lankan and Indian cooking, but in Australia, they’re eaten a bit differently, so we wanted to show people how they’re used in our part of the world,” Ms Valayudan said.
Ms Srinivasan is originally from India – the third top producer of cashew nuts in the world – while Sri Lanka, where Ms Velayudan was born, is in the top 20. Cashews are native to Brazil but have become important agricultural crops in both India and Sri Lanka since Portugese traders introduced them in the 16th century.
“People in Australia tend to eat cashews by themselves as a snack, but in our cultures, they’re mostly used in curries and as a starter with drinks, particularly for special occasions,”Ms Velayudan said. “Buddhist, Hindu or Muslim – irrespective of your religion, everyone use cashews in their curries. They’re like a peacemaker.”
Along with a cashew nut curry, a team of SSI staff and volunteers, and people seeking asylum also cooked up a simple south-Indian style chicken curry from Ms Srinivasan’s recipe.
“This is really easy to make and goes well with rice, roti and naan bread. Try this curry with some pappadums and a simple yoghurt raita,” she said.
Both chefs acknowledged that curry was a particularly complex dish to serve for the big crowds at Community Kitchen.
“We couldn’t have done it without the help of our colleagues, who came in hours early to help prep 17kg of onions and 3kg of ginger and garlic!” Ms Velayudan said.
Cashew nut curry
Ingredients: (for 3–4 servings)
1 cup of cashews that have been soaked for 12 hours
1/2 cup green peas that have been soaked for a few hours or frozen peas
1 green chili sliced lengthwise
1 onion sliced
1 sprig curry leaves
1 inch piece pandan leaf/rampa
1 tsp chilli powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 pinch of chilli flakes
Stick of cinnamon
Salt to taste
1–2 tbsp cooking oil
3 tbsp Coconut cream or Kara milk
Method:
Wash the soaked cashew and boil them with salt for 30 minutes, and keep to the side.
Heat oil in a pan and, when hot, add the onions, cumin seeds, ginger garlic paste, cinnamon, cardamom, curry leaves, green chillies, pandan leaves, chilli flakes and sauté for few seconds.
Add more water if required and salt to taste.
Once all the ingredients are cooked through, add the coconut milk. Stir well and then simmer.
Add boiled cashews, green peas, and mix well.
Take off the flames and serve.
Tip: Adding 1/2 a teaspoon of baking powder to the water when soaking the cashew and peas will make them softer. Adding a spoon of sugar at the end of the process will also make the cashew nuts taste better.
South-Indian style chicken curry
Ingredients: (for 3–4 servings)
500g skinless chicken, cut into two-inch pieces and coated in turmeric and salt
2 brushed potatoes
4 brown onions, chopped
2 tomatoes
2 green chillis
3 tsp ginger and garlic paste
30g Baba’s chicken masala mix
20g curry powder
1/2 cup coconut milk, thick
1/2 bunch of coriander, chopped finely
2 sprigs curry leaves
5 tsp cooking oil
Juice of half a lemon
Salt as required
Pinch of cloves, cinnamon and cardamom spice mix
Method:
Grind up the green chillies and half of the chopped onions.
Heat oil in the pot; add cloves, cinnamon and cardamom. Then add the chopped onions, the onion and chilli paste, and a little salt. Sauté until golden brown.
Add the chopped tomatoes and sauté well. When the oil separates, add the ginger and garlic paste. Sauté until the paste smells cooked.
Add the washed chicken pieces and cover with the onion, tomatoes and ginger garlic paste. Once coated, add the potatoes.
Add the chicken masala and the curry powder. Cover with water and close the pot with the lid on tightly.
Remove lid after 20 minutes to check the seasoning and spices are to taste, and adjust accordingly.
Add the lemon juice and the coconut milk, then cook for a further five minutes.
Switch off the stove and garnish with the finely chopped coriander and curry leaves.
Close the lid again and do not open until serving.
Tip: When lifting the lid to check your curry, make sure none of the condensation mixes into your dish as this will alter the smell.
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.”