Unfortunately Gul’s story isn’t unique in her community – many families face this dilemma. But something is being done about it. There’s a new project in their community called Gender Inclusive Pathways out of Poverty, or GPOP, which is funded by the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
For Gul, taking part in the GPOP project has meant that she has received training in how to make and grow a seed bed, so she can start farming her own vegies and have something to eat each morning when she wakes up. And she’s only months into the project. In a few short years, Gul will be able to sell her vegetables and make a profit too. She beams ear to ear as she shows off her eggplants and pumpkins. “I love farming,” she says.
To us it looks like backbreaking work, but to Gul it’s a meal ticket; a way to support her family which she would have been unable to do otherwise. She’s grown a variety of vegetables in her garden beds and down the back of her farm there’s a version of a greenhouse with the biggest pumpkin growing. She picks it up with both hands and insists we hold it too. As we all hold the pumpkin in our hands, we realise that right there is the future for her family and it symbolises all that’s to come. Just imagine what the next two years will bring.
Alleviating poverty, particularly for people who have been impacted by a refugee crisis, is essential for stability within the Asia-Pacific region. Gul’s story, whilst only at the beginning, shows that positive change can happen when communities, from all over the world, work together.