Crowd-funding set to help refugee driver education

An initiative to subsidise driving lessons for asylum seekers is set to hand them much more than the keys to a car.

The Wheels to the Future campaign aims to get crowd-funding for driving lessons for asylum seekers so they can get their driver’s licences, in turn providing them with a higher quality of life and more job opportunities.

Ariana Driving School instructor Sajia Ariana came to Australia as a refugee from Afghanistan in 1996 and has spent the past 17 years working predominantly with asylum seekers.

“I saw lots of people, especially Muslim ladies, having problems getting their licence,” Mrs Ariana said.

“Some of them can’t really go with strange men in the car and that’s when I first thought, OK, if I could help them that would be nice.”

The Forest Lake instructor said asylum seekers had limited finances for driving lessons and subsidising the lessons would also have a positive impact on the economy.

“Without their licence they can’t take the children to school, they can’t go to the doctor (and) the transportation in Brisbane is not good enough,” she said.

“Most of these people are really keen to work and once they have a licence they can easily go and find a job ... They won’t even need government support.”

Campaign organiser Lisa Siganto hoped the community would get behind such a positive cause.

“We felt it would be relatively easy to find 500 community supporters giving $50 each,” Ms Siganto said.

The campaign is being facilitated by Communify, a Brisbane community organisation.

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