Victorian Deputy Premier John Thwaites announced four new business enterprises for the local migrant and refugee community last Friday. Migrants and refugees from Smart Cuisine will reopen the Westall Primary School canteen and launch a catering company under a new AMES and State Government initiative. By Rebecca Fraser
DEPUTY Premier and Minister for Victorian Communities John Thwaites harnessed the energy and enthusiasm of Greater Dandenong’s migrant and refugee community last Friday with the launch of four new local businesses.
The four new Adult Multicultural Education Services (AMES) social enterprises were unveiled at the Springvale Community Aid and Advice Bureau and will provide training and work opportunities for the migrant community.
Member for Clayton Hong Lim also helped launched the four new social enterprises that were initiated after studies and settlement reports conducted by AMES identified the enormous difficulties newly arrived migrants and refugees encountered when trying to start their own businesses and gain employment.
Mr Thwaites said one of the businesses would reopen and run the canteen at the Westall Primary School to provide healthy food for their students.
Seven mothers from the school will use the kitchen as a base for a catering business as well as providing healthy school food.
The owners of ‘Smart Cuisine’ are all women migrants from Sri Lanka, India, Africa, Bangladesh and the Cook Islands.
Mr Thwaites said before this initiative the school canteen had not operated for 20 years.
Clayton South resident and mother of one Manjula Victor said she was excited to be involved in Smart Cuisine.
She migrated to Australia two years ago and had found it difficult to find a job.
“It is very hard to find work, I could write you pages and pages on my experiences.
“It does not matter how many degrees you have or if you are qualified in something, people want references and work experience in Australia,” she said.
The other three enterprises are ‘Spicy Girls’, a corporate catering enterprise specialising in Mediterranean and halal food; ‘Babushka’s Delight’, a catering enterprise specialising in Russian cuisine, jams and baked goods, and the ‘SouthEast Cleaning Company’, a Sudanese communitybased enterprise specialising in ‘green’ cleaning services in the local community.
Maisaa Olabi of Keysborough migrated to Australia from Syria in late 1990 and said she, too, had found it difficult to find work.
But the mother of three is now involved in the new Spicy Girls enterprise.
“When I came here I had very bad asthma and sinus problems as I adjusted to the weather, so I could not work and was sick for a couple of years.
“It is very difficult to find work but now I have made many new friends with this job.
“We all divided the work equally and everyone is a boss,” she said.
Mr Thwaites said the Department for Victorian Communities had supported AMES with a grant of $128,000 to develop the four community enterprises.
The selfhelp programs also have the support of the City of Greater Dandenong and the City of Kingston.
Mr Thwaites said grants like this would help disadvantaged groups maximise their opportunities.
Support for the four new enterprises includes ongoing training in food handling and preparation and ongoing support for business management and further development.
AMES community manager Mr Chris Pierson said these social enterprises were designed to create economic opportunities for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) migrants and refugees who experience significant disadvantages due to their lack of competitive labour skills.
“The Enterprise structure provides the requisite level of support to function as a work training environment, designed to offer culturally and linguistically sensitive prevocational skills training.
“It is envisaged that with supportive and a friendly enterprise environment, migrants and refugees will develop high selfesteem and morale, gain labour skill competence and actively pursue mainstream economic opportunities,” he said.
Mr Pierson said the AMES social enterprise model was based on the principle of autonomy.
“CALD communities own and control their respective enterprises, so our role is to assist in building the capacity of CALD groups to develop their enterprise and tailor it to community needs, and provide ongoing support for maintenance, growth and sustainability,” he said.
