Twenty years after Sharyn Mackenzie befriended a Sudanese family, started helping them learn English and then co-founded Strategic Community Assistance to Refugee Families (SCARF), another remarkable woman has stepped up to lead the programs helping people settle in our city.
Allyson Pazos grew up in Uruguay, moved to Sydney to study at age 18 and started her career as an accountant. “It was very corporate,” she says. “Then I went on maternity leave and I said, ‘That’s it. This is not what I love.’
“I was always quite a big advocate for refugee rights and human rights. I did voluntary work on the side. But then I decided I wanted to transition to community development work.”
Allyson went back to study further and started working with refugee families in Fairfield. “I could combine my passion with the previous skills, with the ability to run projects.”
Now her babies are teenagers, the family lives in Bulli and Allyson has spent the past six years at MCCI, which welcomed SCARF Refugee Support into its fold during the pandemic. Allyson’s role expanded and she is now MCCI’s general manager for refugee and youth support. “I’m super humbled and super privileged, and I hope I can serve our community well,” she says.
The focus on friendship that drove SCARF won’t change, she wants to reassure supporters. “We just put in this robust structure, if you like, so that we can enhance that reach and broaden it. We have brought together a very strong team.”
Allyson says, “Australia runs an incredible humanitarian settlement program that is very effective.”
But it is not-for-profits like SCARF that extend the warm human hand of welcome to newcomers, helping with everything from driving lessons to homework.
MCCI is also built on the kindness of volunteers. “They’re the energy, they’re the core of our work,” Allyson says. “We couldn’t really do what we do without them. We’re always on the lookout for volunteers.”
Covid lockdowns led to engagement problems and now is a time to rebuild trust, as well as help people struggling with the cost of living crisis. “There is enormous need,” Allyson says. “Our teams are really busy.”
As a migrant herself, Allyson understands that home can be more than one place. “I also bring that lens of that migration journey, the attachment, the fact that we can love both places.”
Recognising a need to promote mental health and wellbeing, Allyson says one of her favourite programs is Let’s Chat. “It brings people in, in a really casual manner, to just come together and practise their English, but also connect with others. We do that weekly.
“It’s incredibly valuable.
“The group went to the Botanic Gardens last Friday as a way of finishing the term. To be able to do stuff like that, it really fills people’s hearts. And then that means we’re setting them up for a happy life and settlement.”
MCCI has a range of volunteer opportunities for dedicated and passionate people to give back to their community. Visit the MCCI website for more information, to complete the application form online or call MCCI on 02 4229 7566