Common Ground Project’s Staying Grounded program a win for Iraqi women

Two Iraqi women and their families find a new home in Geelong after fleeing Islamic State. Next, they had to find a job. This is their story.

Iraqi refugees Farah Alyonani and Lina Sakarya with Common Grounds Beth Wasylewski (middle) are taking part in a program helping them get qualified to work in Australia. Picture: Brad Fleet.

A cooking program in Freshwater Creek seems an unlikely place for two Iraqi women to meet.

Neither Farah Alyonani nor Lina Sakarya cooked much, if at all, in their native country.

Now the pair cater for crowds from a cafe kitchen, surrounded by gum trees, paddocks and a lush market garden.

The women had lived in northern Iraq, just outside of Mosul, before they were forced to flee from the rampaging, barbaric Islamic State.

“I was in Jordan for 2½ years before coming here in March 2020, Farah was in Lebanon for four years,” Ms Sakarya said.

Both came to Australia on humanitarian visas and settled in Bell Post Hill – Ms Alyonani in 2019 and Ms Sakarya a year later.

In Mosul, Ms Sakarya had worked for nearly a decade in administration at a non-government organisation, while Ms Alyonani had spent four years studying arts and English at university.

But all their years of studying and working meant nothing when it came to finding a job in their new homeland.

“I translated my certification over, but it doesn’t work, they wanted experience,” Ms Sakarya said.

“During Covid was a very bad time, a new country, everything here is different … we were studying English online.”

Her husband, formerly a teacher, retrained as a barber.

“He’s just finished his apprenticeship,” Ms Sakarya said.

A car bomb explodes in Mosul in late 2016. Picture: AP /Felipe Dana.

Amid her desperate search for work, the 38-year-old mother-of-three heard about Staying Grounded.

The program, run by the Common Ground Project, is designed to create training and employment opportunities in farming and hospitality for people facing disadvantage in the Geelong region.

Ms Alyonani and Ms Sakarya completed the eight-week program last year, along the way learning a range of business, culinary and hospitality skills.

Prior to the program, Ms Alyonani had never cooked.

“Even when I married, I lived with my husband’s family, so his mother cooked,” she said.

Despite her English studies, she said the Australian accent created a few issues.

“I once used a tablespoon of chilli instead of a teaspoon,” she laughed.

“In Iraq we studied British, here it’s like another language.”

Ms Sakarya said it was a long way from her previous career that involved laptops and numbers, but she had no choice but to embrace the change

“Now I’m in the kitchen with pots and pans,” she said.

Staying Grounded works with women from asylum seeker and immigrant communities who are seeking employment.

Participants cook meals that are then distributed to in-need families and individuals through local food relief agencies Feed Me Surf Coast and OneCare Geelong.

“The program started during Covid when lots of food organisation realised there was a demand to support food relief, and while other workers were on JobKeeper.” Common Ground chief executive Felicity Jacob said.

More than three quarters of participants have gone on to find long-term employment, while other have set up their own home cooking businesses.

“It’s a paid program, with our co-ordinators paid as well,” Ms Jacob said.

Ms Jacob said parts of the program had been paused this year while the not-for-profit sought more funding, so she and her team had begun seeking creative ways to develop it into a self-sustaining program that wasn’t reliant on government grants.

“From next year we hope to properly launch a catering business,” she said.

“It would be stage two of the program.”

She said stage one would then focus on skill building, while stage two shifted to catering for businesses and take-home meals.

Ms Sakarya and Ms Alyonani were this year the first participants in this “soft launch” of stage two.

Farah Alyonani, Beth Wasylewski and Lina Sakarya. Picture: Brad Fleet.

Program co-ordinator Beth Wasylewski, a commercial chef, said the participants had developed so significantly that they were teaching her.

“It’s amazing to see their skills translate into commercially viable skills,” she said.

Ms Wasylewski said watching their confidence grow was the most rewarding part of the job.

Staying Grounded hosts a community feast at the end of every program.

The next feast will be held on December 8 at Common Ground Project’s Freshwater Creek farm, with meals made by Ms Alyonani, Ms Sakarya and the rest of the Staying Grounded team.

“I was cooking for maximum three to four people, but I learnt from here to be confident to cook for 100-plus people, and there’s no stress,” Ms Alyonani said.

Originally published as Common Ground Project’s Staying Grounded program a win for Iraqi women