A successful future on the horizon for Iraqi family

The Kaky family meeting with NSW Premier Mike Baird and Federal Minister for Social Services Christian Porter. 

Mr Ayad Kaky, his wife Iptesam, and their children Mark and Rita arrived in Australia last week as part of the extra cohort of 12,000 Syrian and Iraqi refugees to be resettled in Australia.

Premier Baird welcomed a ‘beautiful family’ and said that NSW was proud to be able to help them.

“They have a story that many of us could never in any way relate to, but they find themselves here to start a new life and we’re proud to help them over the coming weeks and months and years,” Mr Baird said.

“This family represents the human face, the human story of what this refugee intake is all about.”

Mr Porter said that welcoming another family was a pleasant task for him and that others will arrive in the coming months and years.

“There have been around 90 arrivals in NSW and we acknowledge that NSW is an enormous contributor to the way we settle this 12,000 cohort,” Mr Porter said.

“We have an art teacher who saw his first Sidney Nolan today,” Mr Porter said.

Through an interpreter, Mr Kaky bravely fronted a press conference after his meeting with the Premier and Minister to make a statement and answer questions.

Mr Kaky said that he and his family were looking forward to a successful future in Australia.

“As an experienced and passionate art teacher it is my wish to continue in this career but I know there will be challenges in a new country,” Mr Kaky said.

“The most important thing for us now is learn the language and understand the Australian culture and we want to settle our son into school as soon as possible.”

Having been in Australia for just six days, the Kaky family have been supported by their case manager to enrol in English classes, sign up to Medicare and Centrelink, find accommodation, enrol their eldest child into school and to answer their questions about the Australian culture.