Meet Josephine
“I tell my kids that they are lucky. When I was their age, I was not at school and I was running from the war. You are lucky in this country that you have school.”
Josephine
Josephine’s four children have attended the Brotherhood’s Fitzroy Breakfast Club for over five years. As a sole parent with English as an additional language and no family support, raising four school-aged children has had its struggles.
One thing that has helped Josephine is the Brotherhood’s assistance to connect her with local community. Josephine attends the Breakfast Club with her kids on weekdays. It gives her children a stable routine and they can enjoy a nutritious meal every day before school. The kids love the Breakfast Club. “They play and draw, have food, then go to school,” she says.
Josephine fled the war in South Sudan at the age of 16 to come to Australia alone. She often tells her children how fortunate she feels they are to have access to a good life and education. “I tell them that they are lucky,” she explains. She wants the best future for them, “I need you to study,” she tells them.
At Breakfast Club, Josephine has made friends with the other parents. “We met here and drink tea together,” she says. And the morning rush can be pretty hectic, so they all pitch in, “We help each other with the children,” she explains.
She works and has studied over the years, but as sole parents know, it’s not easy, “If the child gets sick, I have to drop out of school,” she explains. However, Josephine has recently earned a diploma in childcare. “I want to fight hard to be better and to get a job,” she says. With the Brotherhood’s help finding work placements and with job interviews, her chances of finding employment are looking good.
Our Breakfast Club provides over 6,000 nutritional breakfasts every year to children before school.
By donating you can help families, like Josephine’s, to be school ready.
We’re grateful for the bravery of Josephine, Elif, and Megha, who’ve shared their stories in the hope it will generate support for others like them.
You can write a message of support to these remarkable women.