By Cam Lucadou-Wells
There’s a lot of warmth as well as sumptuous food cooking in the kitchen at the ADRA Afri-Aus Care Community Centre Springvale South.
Since its Covid-19 food relief program started in March, Black Rhinos Basketball Club members have been busy in the kitchen learning how to cook African food from mature-aged men and women.
The kitchen sizzles and wafts with authentic flavours of boiling chicken (the road runner), with fresh greens from the kitchen garden and authentic staples such as asida, mula and sukumawiki leaves.
Afri-Aus Care’s Founder Selba_Gondoza Luka says the cooks are “one family”, two generations working together.
There’s the young basketballers who regard each other as “brothers” and “sisters”. They call Ms Luka their “Mum” and community development officer Veronica Ajobong “Auntie”.
In this ‘family’, the young people form the Ubuntu Peer to Peer Restorative Group. They are regarded as leaders of today at Afri-Aus Care.
And the centre is like a “home” where elders and youth relate well, under the concept of ‘Ubuntu and the Positive Change Model’ – that is “harmony and humanity”.
“Under the Ubuntu concept, if someone is going to harm the family, our community would do anything to protect you,” Ms Luka said.
Black Rhinos players are doing more than just keeping busy while basketball courts have been locked down for five months.
They’re learning work skills – cooking, sewing, gardening, packing and delivering much-appreciated fresh food parcels in Greater Dandenong on Tuesdays and Casey-Cardinia on Fridays.
These dedicated volunteers are supported with pathways toward paid employment .
The cooked meals are being delivered to some of Afri-Aus Care’s women’s health and wellbeing group.
It’s one way to connect and support during the pandemic.
The team will soon start to share videos of each week’s recipe via YouTube.
Before Covid-19 restrictions, the women’s group regularly gathered for gardening, sewing, cooking and getting culturally-appropriate support with domestic violence, mental health and parenting skills.
The members are now meeting online.
With support from Community Four and ADRA, information and updates about Covid–19 will also be sent online with short YouTube videos in some of the communities’ common language.
Afri-Aus Care also offers culturally-appropriate counselling services and referrals to appropriate agencies and GPs as the community suffers high rising levels of depression and anxiety.
More support in this area is needed, Ms Luka said.
She said the City of Greater Dandenong was also providing decent food for Afri-Aus Care men’s and women’s groups.
