Anti-Poverty Week – the best way out of poverty is decent work

A course that trains people to become security officers has seen an African refugee take the first step to a life free of poverty.

Abraham Biar is one of the many people whose lives have changed for the better through their involvement with the Brotherhood of St Laurence by gaining training and employment through the organisation's services.A national sponsor of Anti-Poverty Week , the Brotherhood works with others to alleviate poverty around Australia.

Mr Biar was only 16 when he found himself alone in an Ethiopian refugee camp. His father had been killed three years earlier during the Sudanese Civil War and his family had scattered.

"By the time I was 28, I was married and had been living in displaced persons camps across Africa for 12 years," he said.

Eventually, the couple, with their two children, arrived in Melbourne as refugees, living in public housing estate, Atherton Gardens in Fitzroy. Mr Biar saw a sign in the elevator advertising training courses at the Brotherhood of St Laurence.

He completed the Brotherhood's 12-month traineeship in Certificate III in Community Services Work and began to work casually as a concierge for the organisation's Victorian Government-funded Community Safety and Information Service, which provides valuable training and work experience at the housing estate for its tenants.

He then completed a Certificate II in Security Operations and recently was offered full-time employment as a security officer for Unified Security Group.Unified Security Group's Regional Operations – Southern Manager, Luke Walker, said his company has partnered with the Brotherhood for two years.

"We have gained dedicated and extremely loyal employees," he said.

Mr Biar said he has worked very hard to get this opportunity. "I've been looking so long for a job. It's difficult to get one, especially if you haven't been born here."

The Brotherhood's executive director Tony Nicholson said the best way out of poverty and disadvantage is decent work.

"The best thing we can do to lift people out of poverty is to ensure they have the skills and experience that will enable them to get a job and to go on to build a good life for themselves," he said.