Thang Ling had a troubled journey to Australia.
The Burmese refugee describes his time in India after leaving Burma in 1998 and the conditions he endured as “very hard”.
“We cooking in there, sleeping here, sit there,” he said. “It was an eight-by-six house we shared with five other people.”
Mr Ling these days calls Australia home and, thanks to CatholicCare program Green Patch, he has brought a little of Burma with him.
The Sunshine man drives to Eynesbury a few times a week to “connect” with the land and grow vegies “just like in [his] home country”.
“I have a very happy life now – I plant my own vegetable in here,” Mr Ling says.
“We can eat the produce and plant it just like in our home country so we have less of a homesick.”
About 25 families use the Eynesbury farm, which has a capacity for five more families.
The Green Patch project has received grants to help with the upkeep of land and was recently given $5000 from Qantas for a chicken coop and some inhabitants.
But CatholicCare western area senior manager Nick Collins says the group is hoping to receive more funding to help develop the farm as a community enterprise.
“The Green Patch farm gives the people a connection back to their land,” he said.
“It can also be a pathway to further training and employment. There’s been a whole lot of community involvement to get the farm to where it is. Now we’re trying to think about developing it as a community enterprise.”
For more information about the project, to get involved or to donate, call 5246 5600.
