Getting a driver’s licence provides everyone a degree of freedom, but for refugee Baraka Emmy it has completely changed his life.
Emmy arrived in Australia from the Congo in 2011 as an unaccompanied minor and recently graduated from Spectrum Resource Centre’s Drive to Thrive program.
The Sunshine program paired newly arrived refugees from Burma, Iran, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Sudan with mentors who taught them the skills needed to pass their driving tests.
“Life’s a lot easier now,” Emmy says. “It’s certainly more flexible; I don’t have to catch public transport to work or sport. I was a bit nervous beforehand. It was a bit scary but once I got used to it, it all became natural.”
Emmy, one of nine refugees to graduate from the program, says he’s now easily able to get to his job at Savers in Brunswick, study at Victoria University in Footscray and attend regular soccer matches.
Spectrum settlement family services program manager Ewa Zysk said having a licence removed one of the main barriers to finding work and combatting feelings of isolation.
“Six of the nine people who went through the program have obtained work as a result of having their licences, which is a fantastic result,” she said.
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