Driving down the barriers
Astride is a really amazing, amazing lady … When Astride tells you her story, you see the pain and the anguish in her heart when she sees all that she has and knows all that her family doesn’t have.
- Salvation Army Captain Nesan Kistan
With no local child care available for her (almost) three-year-old, and no family support, for many years Astride had to wake her youngest daughter at four in the morning and catch a train to the Sydney suburb of Cabramatta. There, she would drop her daughter at child care, then catch two more trains and a bus to start work at 6.30am.
The quietly spoken Astride came to Australia, via a refugee camp, from the Democratic Republic of Congo almost seven years ago. Aged in her early 20s, she had already lived through more fear, grief and pain than many people experience in a lifetime.
Working to start a new life with no home, no furniture and no contacts, Astride and her husband felt incredibly thankful to secure jobs, but money was still in short supply.
Astride was also acutely aware that every $40 she slowly saved for a driving lesson could have paid for food or medical care for her family still living in a refugee camp in Tanzania.
“My mum has nothing,” she explains. “There are 11 people (family members in the refugee camp). My sister died three years ago and she left behind four kids with my mum because her husband also passed away.”
Astride’s mother had already been viciously attacked and beaten by rebels when she was employed as a nurse in a government-run hospital in the Congo. But it was the attack on her 14-year-old sister recently in the refugee camp that made Astride even more desperate to do all that she can to help.
“My young sister was … going to the river to get water,” she says. “There were three or four boys who assaulted her...”
And so Astride has worked as hard as she can, travelling long hours to and from her employment often with an exhausted baby, to help support two families.
The process of taking driving lessons remained slow, until one day while sitting in church at the Auburn Salvation Army, Astride heard what to her was incredible news. Auburn Salvos had launched a new service - a driving school offering lessons for a small fee. She took up the offer and today has her provisional driver’s licence.
“I think the programme is really good and very helpful. I just pray that it will continue, so that it can help other people like me who may need it,” she says shyly.
Auburn Corps Officer Captain Nesan Kistan works in partnership with wife, Cheryl, and a team of staff and volunteers who operate the church, welfare centre, Family Store, and Umoja retail training store. They also run English conversation classes, a positive work choice program, and host a Salvos Legal service. The corps is located in one of the most ethnically diverse suburbs in Australia.
“We spoke to police and council and the need for licences and driving training was a massive issue,” says Nesan.
“We found that new migrants coming into our community were struggling to get employment, often because they didn’t have a licence to get to work or for work.
“Having a licence is an integral part of life here and not having one puts up barriers to functioning as part of Australian society.”
To help launch the new driving school, Nissan Australia donated two cars, which will be updated regularly, and Cabcharge Australia has promised additional vehicles and the use of their training facilities as the program develops. Ongoing costs will be funded by the Auburn Corps and community.
Comments
No comments yet - be the first.