TRANSCRIPT
Arnaldo is preparing arepas - a traditional Venezuelan street food - to say thank you to his new-found friends.
"I used to cook this at home with my mother and grandmother when I was a child."
Arnaldo arrived in Australia just four weeks ago, knowing little English and with no family connections.
But he was greeted at the airport with open arms by a group of seven volunteers, waiting to help him settle into his new life.
“The arrival in Australia and the help from the group has been great. Without the group I wouldn’t know where to go, how to get there, how to do all the errands. The way I was received and accepted by the group was magnificent. More than family, friends, it's as if we had known each other for many years."
"Arnaldo is one of the most engaging people I know. He just has this enthusiasm, this desire to explore new things, and he has this enthusiasm in everything he does.
Dean Johnston is the coordinator of the community support group assigned to Arnaldo.
They're part of the Community Refugee Integration and Settlement Pilot.
The trial program recruits groups of five or more volunteers to help settle a refugee, or family of refugees, in their first year.
Lisa Button is the CEO of Community Refugee Sponsorship Australia and manages the program.
"The basic responsibilities are to get to know the family a little bit before they arrive, over the phone or online, meet them at the airport when they come to Australia, help them with their initial startup needs. So that's things like opening a bank account, registering for Medicare, enrolling kids in school and finding initial and long-term housing. And then essentially being a mentor for a 12 month period. "
Friendship often turns out to be just as important.
Arnaldo fled Venezuela after he was attacked by police and persecuted for his sexuality.
He spent seven years in limbo in the Caribbean before being designated a refugee by the United Nations and accepted to Australia.
He hasn't seen his partner since leaving the Venezuela.
"Life in Venezuela is difficult in general, even more so for a person from the LGBT community. I had threats from another person. I had problems with the police several times. They repressed me for being from the LGBT community."
Dean Johnston says emotional support from a group within the LGBTIQ+ community can provide added safety and comfort.
"Community can be geography, living in a particular area, but I think we think of it more as community for us is more around friendship and shared values and shared experience. And that's, I think, what has made it a bit easier."
Jodie Carberry is another member of the community support group.
She helped Arnaldo set up his apartment, and has been showing him around his local area.
"We've gone to the pool, we've gone to the beach, we've walked, we've talked, we've done a lot of talking, a lot of chatting. I think through the chats, we've developed a friendship where he does feel comfortable enough to be able to chat and ask anything."
Since August 2022, 401 refugees from 106 households have been settled under the program.
Within 12 months, 68 per cent of these gained employment, 92 per cent were still engaged in English language classes, and 100 per cent had secured long-term housing.
That's led to calls for the program to be expanded.
Last year the government made an aspirational pledge at the UN's Global Refugee Forum, to increase community-sponsored resettlement of refugees, in various forms, by an additional 10,000 people a year.
Lisa Button wants that to include a pathway for community groups to support refugees they already know.
"We encounter every day, every week in our work members of the refugee diaspora who have family, friends or other connections still in harm's way who are desperately looking for avenues to support them to come to Australia. Every week we turn away people who really want to sponsor someone that they know because our program at the moment doesn't cater for that."
As for Arnaldo, with the help of his group, he's now looking for work, and planning to study, with the dream of one day working for an airline.
"Now I feel very happy, since I arrived to Australia, and I see that the possibilities for what I like, and what I want are open. I am a very positive person and when I say, 'I am going to do something', I fight and fight, until I get it done."
This story produced in collaboration with SBS Spanish
