By Danielle Kutchel
“Believe in a woman, because a woman can change the world.”
That was the sentiment behind the launch of the Afri-Aus Care Ubuntu Mothers Project, which will work with the African-Australian women’s community in the south-east and the west to provide skills, opportunities and employment to the women, helping them to connect with their community and families.
As far as attendees go, it was a star-studded event, attended by Trent Smyth, Honorary Consul of Malawi; Corrections Minister Natalie Hutchins; Greater Dandenong mayor Angela Long; representatives of the Victorian Multicultural Commission, and others.
But the real stars were the ‘mamas’, the African-Australian women who are at the heart of Afri-Aus Care’s work and this new project.
Speaking with an electric passion, Afri-Aus Care founder and CEO Selba Luka, directed the audience to focus on the mamas and their dreams.
Since joining Afri-Aus Care, she said, they had found a new family and a new life in Australia.
It hasn’t been an easy journey, with many women experiencing mental health issues stemming from family violence, trauma and intergenerational conflict with their children.
Many are also lonely, with few family or social networks to turn to when they arrive.
Ms Luka knows what they’ve been through; she too experienced depression and was suicidal after arriving in Australia.
She paid tribute to those who believed in her dream at the time – a dream to provide support for the African-Australian diaspora.
Six years on, that dream continues – and the Ubuntu Mothers Project is its latest iteration.
It has also attracted the attention of the State Government, with Corrections Minister Natalie Hutchins pledging $516,000 in funding towards it.
“We know that the Victorian African community is resilient, vibrant and ready to make a real difference and contribute to our state,” Ms Hutchins said on the day.
Part of the project’s aim is to reduce the overrepresentation of African-Australian youth in the state’s justice system, diverting them from a path of crime to one of family and community connectedness.
It is rooted in Ubuntu, an African concept meaning ‘I am, because we are’.
Ubuntu also underpins all of Afri-Aus Care’s work and has so far helped to restore and maintain connections between generations and new arrivals to the country – linking their motherland to their new home.
“Drawing on African-Australian community strength, the project will harness the principals and practises of Ubuntu to draw a roadmap for family youth community engagement,” Ms Hutchins said.
“Empowering mothers means what it says: building capacity, leadership, and opportunity for African-Australian mothers here in this region and across the west.
“These new skills in Ubuntu practice combined with improved health and social connectiveness will serve us to not only strengthen relationships with young people but to improve your families lives,” she said.
“Mothers are the heart of communities, the heart of our families, and this project will provide culturally appropriate support to the Victorian African-Australian community. I look forward to seeing the great outcomes from this project.”
