By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
SARAH is proof that anything is possible.
It’s been a rocky path for the 23-year-old single mum who has been cooking up aromatic spicy feasts for YSAS outreach clients in Dandenong and Noble Park.
Sarah arrived with her parents and eight siblings in Australia as a 10-year-old having previously fled Sudan’s impoverishment for Egypt.
She personally knows some of the clients, including one of a group of five regular drinkers in public parks who had been getting intensive support from YSAS and Victoria Police.
The men have been put through detox programs and given some health pointers, including devouring Sarah’s nutritious cooking.
She recognises the young men’s pitfalls, having herself left home at 17.
“I feel bad for some of them – I managed to pull myself out. I just told myself this is not who I am.”
At one stage she was shacked up in an emergency boarding house surrounded by drug users.
Yet as the only student in the house, she was able to knuckle down and finish year 10 studies.
She puts that down to her stubborn personality.
“If I want something, I’ll get it done.”
Her impressive 85.5 ENTER score gained her entry to a law course, which was partly deferred when she gave birth to her two-year-old daughter.
The cooking support is important to Sarah who fits it in among parenting duties and personal care assistant work at a Clarinda nursing home.
“I just love to help people and see people happy. I want to help them be positive, to give them hope.”
Her resolve was strengthened by a trip to her homeland last year where she saw young kids shine shoes for money rather than being at school.
“People were really struggling for food. It made me realise how much we take for granted over here.”
YSAS senior assertive outreach worker Andrew Holt said he could see special inspiring qualities in Sarah.
“She’s had her ups and downs. She knew those boys and wanted to give back.”
He said part of YSAS’s outreach service was targeting at-risk cohorts with a supportive rather than punitive approach.
“There were a lot of guys in the parks which we believed did not know the services out there or how to navigate those services.
“They were fearful and had trust issues.”
YSAS’s team built up trust by hosting barbecues in the group’s park, then setting up a welcoming space in Noble Park Community Centre for a meal, dominos, chess and Playstation soccer.
They gave health and harm-minimalisation tips, like not drinking heavily on an empty stomach, and described the physiological effects of alcohol.
YSAS’s Dandenong base has hosted up to 20 clients for a cook-up on Wednesdays with engaging activities such as T-shirt and aerosol art and games of pool and table tennis.
In the Journal last month, Acting Senior Sergeant Joey Herrech of Victoria Police credited the program for saving the boys from near-certain incarceration or death.
The assertive youth outreach service, in the absence of government funding, has been funded by the FebFast charity for the past two years.
For more information visit febfast.org.au.
