Mary is a 56-year-old lady from South Sudan. She was born into civil war between north and south and the war-torn country was rife with political tensions and extreme acts of violent crime. When Mary was a baby, her parents fled to Ethiopia, and this is where she spent her early years. Ethiopia was by no means a peaceful nation and the standard of living was not high compared to most of the privileged western world. Her resilient parents made the best of it and Mary attended school there.

He was tragically killed during battle between the north and south in 1996. After this Mary fled to Kenya to seek solace from the conflict and was placed into a refugee camp. She lived through some hard times at the refugee camp with her children between 1999 until 2005.

It goes without saying but Mary is an extraordinarily resilient and strong woman to put it mildly. She campaigned for and was able to relocate her seven children and two young brothers to Australia as refugees in 2005. They were located in Melbourne at the beginning and initially things were very tough! No-one could speak the language and the large family were not being provided with proper housing or provisions. A social worker took on the family’s case and it wasn’t long before this close-knit tribe of ten were relocated to Ballarat. Since this intervention, Mary says she is very grateful to the Australian Government for providing a nice home and plenty of provisions for the family.

Over the next decade Mary lovingly raised her children, her kids integrated socially and excelled in their schooling; her older girl went on to become a qualified lawyer. Mary decided to move to Melbourne during her daughter’s time training to be a lawyer at university so she could offer her support through these testing years of intense study. Upon completion of the degree Mary and the family moved back to Ballarat in 2016.

Mary decided it was now her time to find work as the children were at an age where they could look after themselves more. She was referred by her job agency to Ballarat Neighbourhood Centre (BNC) in 2018 and her first point of contact was Lisa. Lisa has been a “God send” for Mary and she is the one who has helped to guide her through “all this” and is still supporting her today.

Lisa suggested Mary undertake some in-house courses running in the Centre to help build her pre-existing cooking skills. Mary was able to attain cooking certificates as well as food handling and safety accreditation. Lisa recognized Mary’s passion for traditional cooking and a possible business opportunity! BNC then financed a Certificate IV in Business which Mary completed with no problems. She learnt all about setting up a small business and developed the marketing skills needed for product promotion.

Mary specializes in traditional African vegetarian dishes as well as African donuts and homemade couscous. With her new business skills she was able to start mass producing and packaging these products and selling them at her local market. This was a tightly run operation which became quite lucrative pre-Covid when she was making good profits for just two hours of cooking time, that makes good business sense in anyone’s book!

With Covid, obviously demand subsided due to the market being closed. Mary decided to go back to see Lisa down at the Centre. They considered Mary’s strengths and what jobs were in demand and they decided they would apply for vacancies as a personal carer. Mary had already attained her Certificates in Community Studies and Disability Studies so all she needed was a fresh resume and some help applying for the appropriate roles.

Lisa tailored an “amazing resume” and she was able to secure a job in next to no time. Lisa was also happy to act as a referee, after all she had seen more than enough to testify Mary was an amazing prospect to any employer, possessing the resilience and can-do attitude most job seekers could only dream of.

Presently Mary is working for a private company as a disability support worker, and she is also getting ready to gear up her ‘side hustle’ once more with the market produce stall. Mary is the definition of the Australian dream when it comes to migrant success stories, and it just goes to show what can be possible when someone has an amazing attitude and they are further empowered by having the right people in their corner.

We know the journey towards a destination is as important as the destination itself. Regardless of how you Connect with us, we will travel this journey with you; sharing your highs and lows, the good and the bad times, and working with you to help you Learn and Participate.

This story was captured by John in December 2023 as a student placement project for his Bachelor of Community and Human Services degree. Names may be changed.