Cricket has been something of a saviour for Tamil asylum seeker Uthay, since he came to Australia. Uthay, his preferred name, is originally from Sri Lanka and is awaiting assessment for refugee protection. He is a Tamil man, 27 years old, and the potential consequences for men like Uthay in Sri Lanka are such that his full name and image can’t be revealed.
SSI’s Storytelling and Film-making Workshop program culminates this month with a showcase of short films. On November 14, SSI friends, staff, volunteers and clients are invited to a special screening of films made by SSI’s asylum seeker clients during the six-week workshop program.
SSI clients who live in Sydney’s west while seeking asylum, headed east to Mosman on October 24, to start regenerating a neglected harbourside national park. It was the first day of a 10-week volunteering project arranged by SSI and NSW’s National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS).
SSI case managers have continued their efforts to show the various local charities just how much they are appreciated by sharing a morning tea. One team of Community Support Program staff from SSI Parramatta paid a visit to the Salvos charity store in Fairfield, on October 9, delivering treats for staff and volunteers, sharing stories and thanking them for their support.
Staff involved in SSI’s Playtime program were given a guided tour of the Owl's House Early Education Centre at the University of NSW last month, to observe how the service operates. Owl's House is a specialist childcare centre with a focus on early education that has provided support to SSI’s Playtime program.
Wearing pink saris, SSI staff joined the South Asian women’s network, SAHELI, in Parramasala’s Opening Night Parade in Parramatta last month. SAHELI – a Hindi word that translates to ‘sister’ – and SSI staff took part in the Pink Sari Project, led by NSW Multicultural Health Communication Service, at the Parramasala Parade to help raise awareness about breast cancer and breast screening.
Rotary Club of Randwick presented SSI Manager of Humanitarian Services David Keegan with a Paul Harris Fellowship last month for his work as a mental health first aider as well as recognition for his work with refugees and asylum seekers.
The 6th annual STARTTS Refugee Ball was held on October 23, at Cockle Bay Wharf, and was enthusiastically supported by SSI staff. The ball raises much needed funds for the NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors (STARTTS).
SSI took 34 young clients on an ‘Amazing Race’-style adventure around Sydney, during the recent school holidays to provide some fun and educational entertainment.
Humanitarian entrants who come to Australia on Women at Risk (WaR) visas are among the most vulnerable of refugees. They have been displaced from their homes and have experienced or been in danger of abuse, harassment and victimisation because of their gender.
SSI Ignite Small Business Start-ups’ client and artist Bassam Jabar is attracting attention for his hand-made glass etchings, with interest from a renowned Victorian gallery. Bassam, originally from Iraq, made his way to Australia via Syria after being granted a humanitarian visa in August 2013.
With many of SSI’s clients living under financial hardship, the organisation took further steps towards supporting their needs by launching its online donations page in time for Anti-Poverty Week in October.
Sarah Yahya, 19, was born hearing impaired in Iraq in 1995, to a Mandaean family that lived in fear for their safety. The Mandaean ethnic-religious group has been increasingly persecuted since not long after Sarah arrived in the world. In the cover of night, aged six, Sarah, her sister and mother, were whisked from their home and driven 12 hours in to Jordan. Once there, they went immediately to the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to seek protection. Their father had been arrested and was in prison, serving four years for his beliefs.
Bashir Yousufi was just 13 when he set out on the long journey from Pakistan through Asia to Australia. His father had been killed in Afghanistan by Taliban extremists, Bashir said, because he was of the Hazara ethnic group, and his mother had died from cancer
Customers of Sydney bank teller Asif Haideri come and go, never suspecting he is much different to them. Those who he strikes a conversation with are shocked, he said, to learn he is ethnic Hazara from Afghanistan and was once kidnapped and tortured by the Taliban. “I’m a bank teller and people talk to me every day,” Asif said. “When I say I am from Afghanistan and I came to Australia two years ago, they are shocked. They say, ‘really, I thought you were born here’. I say, no, have you heard of boat people? I am like them. They are shocked.”
The lives and settlement experiences of young refugees will be explored at the fourth and final Speakers’ Series event for 2014 hosted by Settlement Services International (SSI). Titled The strength of youth: young people and their refugee experiences, the event on Tuesday, November 11, will begin with three young people from refugee backgrounds sharing their stories.
Sport is renowned for bringing people from all over the world together, and now cricket has united two seemingly disparate groups of men. Refugees and people seeking asylum have joined members of Knox Grammar School’s ‘Old Boys’ association to hone their bat and ball skills together in the lead up to cricket season. The weekly pre-season cricket clinics at Auburn District Cricket Club on Saturdays have resulted in a mutually beneficial partnership for the 18 or so refugees and asylum seekers, who are clients of SSI, and members of the Old Knox Grammarians’ Association.
Yoga Raja has a talent for “food carving” that is finding appreciative audiences at Sydney weddings and functions. Yoga, 32, is an artist and food – watermelons, carrots and white radish – is his medium. From a watermelon he can carve a life-like human portrait, and from carrots and radish he sculpts bouquets of flowers that people approach to smell as if real.
Tony Podesta believes tennis is a ‘lifetime’ sport. So who better to teach tennis to then recently arrived refugees settling into their new lives in Australia? A group of 8 to 12 children and adults has participated in a Tennis Australia Multicultural Tennis Program for Refugees at the Tony Podesta School of Tennis in Fairfield once a week for the past 10 weeks.
Asylum seekers may not be able to bring many material possessions with them when seeking safety in Australia, but many of them bring impressive skills. To give their talents an outlet, and so more people can enjopy them, Settlement Services International (SSI) an a Sydney music organisation have facilitated opportunities for a group of refugee and asylum seeker musicians from Iran and Burma.