Migrating to another country to start a new life is a daunting prospect for anyone, but add language barriers and visa instability to the mix, and it becomes considerably more challenging. This is the reality for many people Communify supports from asylum seeker, refugee and migrant communities. Low English literacy is a major barrier for refugee and migrant people to not only access employment opportunities, but also to understand, access and navigate essential services.
Longtime Community Hubs participant Elizabeth has bilingual expertise and a natural instinct for leadership, but she too has struggled with the challenges of living on temporary visas since arriving in Australia fourteen years ago. However, through her dedicated involvement in our Community Hub in Moorooka, Elizabeth discovered a unique opportunity to apply her skills to support her peers and make services more accessible to them.
How it started
Elizabeth and her husband migrated to Australia in 2012, and for more than a decade, she waited to secure a permanent visa.
Elizabeth’s life has been far from easy since she arrived here – subsisting on temporary visas has restricted her ability to secure work and access essential health supports such as Medicare. Despite this, Elizabeth went on to raise three children and become actively involved in her children’s school and the wider community. This is how she first came into contact with Communify.
How Communify helped
We first met Elizabeth when she began volunteering at the Community Hub in St Brendan’s Catholic Primary School in Moorooka. She became a highly engaged member of the Hub family, and when a vacancy arose for the role of Community Hub Leader, Elizabeth applied and was successful.
Elizabeth has co-led the Hub for two years alongside her colleague Menal Gupta, creating a warm, welcoming space for the multicultural playgroup and English language and citizenship class to convene. She drew on her enthusiasm for sewing and cooking to facilitate additional group activities, which attracted many participants to the Hub who had newly arrived in Brisbane and sought community connection.
Recognising Elizabeth’s leadership talent and bilingual skillset, Communify’s Community Hubs Support Coordinator introduced her to the Mater Refugee Health Literacy Project. Funded by Brisbane South PHN, this initiative engages Refugee Health Consultants in the Brisbane South region to deliver workshops that support multicultural communities to navigate local health services. The workshops are delivered in language or with the assistance of an interpreter, with the aim of enhancing refugee and migrant communities’ understanding of the health services available to them and how to access those services.
How it's going
Before long, Elizabeth began facilitating Mater Refugee Health Literacy sessions in Tamil, which were attended by Community Hubs participants and Sri Lankan community members of Brisbane. She became instrumental in promoting the program to reach peers in her community, supporting them to improve their health literacy and ability to navigate the local health system.
In recognition of her impact, Mater Refugee and Multicultural Health Service Resource Coordinator Ally Wakefield invited Elizabeth to oversee the translation of the Tamil version of the Queensland Government’s “Guide to healthcare in Queensland”. She and her three children also feature on the front cover of the document.
In addition to her work with the St Brendan’s Community Hub and the Mater Refugee Health Literacy project, Elizabeth completed a Certificate III in School-Based Education Support to pursue employment opportunities as a teacher’s aide. She has also expanded her volunteering efforts in the community to initiatives run by St Vincent de Paul, Salvation Army and Romero Centre.
Despite the challenges Elizabeth has faced due to visa instability, she has nonetheless thrived and built a vibrant life for herself and her family in Brisbane. More than that, she has applied her considerable talents to foster a vital new avenue of support and resources for her peers. She has become a pillar of her community, as illustrated by the numerous letters of support she received to bolster her last application for a permanent visa.
On 20th April 2026, Elizabeth was overjoyed to advise our Community Hub that she and her family had finally been granted permanent visas. This is a major and well-earned milestone in the family’s journey as their lives in Australia continue to flourish.
About Community Hubs
The Community Hubs initiative delivers grass-roots programs based in schools that cultivate connections between refugee and migrant families and their community. Communify has partnered with Community Hubs Australia to deliver support through a network of schools across Brisbane. The hubs support families with education programs, English language support, school preparation programs and pathways to employment. Click here to find out if we have a Community Hub in your area.