Bus-stop experience leads Sneha to fight racism through education
BY LERISSE SMITH
When a group of kids threw a banana peel at Sneha Sapkota while she sat at a local bus stop, the Nepalese immigrant initially laughed it off.
“I just thought it was kids being kids,” recalled the International Student Coordinator who runs ‘The Couch’ program at Glenorchy City Corps in Tasmania.
“But then my aunt, who was visiting from Brisbane, remarked it was not funny, that is racism.”
Her experience at the bus stop while waiting to go home from university was not isolated.
Refugees, migrants and individuals from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds have experienced racial discrimination in smaller townships of Tasmania.
Recognising the critical need to prevent discriminatory behaviour, Sneha plans to publish a book, once funding is secured, to educate schoolchildren about racism.
She believes primary prevention is key in combating the issue and educating younger people open to learning about other cultures.
“The government also needs to be putting more funding into primary prevention.”
“As much as I would love there to be things for adults, it can only happen when they are already wanting to change something. It is not something I can force-feed them,” she reflected.
“But with kids, it is so much easier and there is more space for us to explore different cultures, different types of people. It’s primary prevention. The government also needs to be putting more funding into primary prevention.”
Read about The Salvation Army’s commitment to inclusion here
Sneha said a lot of her clientele and community members she worked with experienced racism “quite full on.”
A Nepali store just near her office was recently trashed by teenagers.
“They broke the windows, and they yell mean things all the time, which is crazy,” she said.
“There are so many people around here who only speak their first language and don’t speak English, so they wouldn’t be able to stand up for themselves. I think racist people know who the vulnerable community really is and usually target them, which is very sad … I believe racism exists because there is a lack of awareness, education and exposure to culture.”
An event last year based on fashion called ‘Couture with CALD’, organised by Sneha and her team, showcased people’s life experiences of moving to Australia, both good and bad.
One of the young community members involved with the show had faced racism at school every day with comments such as ‘Go back to your country’ and ‘You don’t belong here’.
“It really stuck with me that young people aged 9 and 10 who don’t even understand what they are saying, what they are meaning, and saying comments such as ‘go back to your country’,” Sneha commented.
“These young people don’t know what they are saying, and if we can really provide good sources or resources, there may be some space for us to bring some change. I spoke to the young person whose story this is, and she was very keen to do the book as well. So, we were going to collaborate on her story, with myself writing it, and then work together to figure out how we want it to look like. We have an illustrator who is a refugee from Ukraine who also wanted to be involved.
“My hope is that once the book is published, we can get it converted into coursework and get it into schools through Salvos schools.”
Sneha has worked with the local migrant community for more than two years. During the COVID-19 pandemic, international students in Tasmania faced a loss of jobs and received limited support from their home countries to manage their living expenses.
To meet this need in the migrant community, The Couch program started in 2020.
Since then, it has expanded to support refugees, migrants and culturally and linguistically diverse people.
Sneha is passionate about raising awareness of the challenges faced by the CALD community and has taken active steps to educate people about this issue through events, notably Art for Iran in May 2023 and Couture with CALD in April last year.
A local community member, Asha, and her family are among the many local residents The Couch team has helped since moving to Tasmania in search of better opportunities for their family.
“I was so panicked about how I will make a life here,” she said.
“The bills were piling up, and I had no one to turn to. The encouragement, advice, and information I was able to receive from the program kept me going. I am so very thankful.”
Asha and her family had struggled to find stable housing and employment prior to discovering The Couch. Asha became increasingly anxious about how they would manage their future in Tasmania.
However, after she contacted The Salvation Army for support and was connected to the program, Sneha advocated for Asha, helping her secure a job and, more importantly, regain her confidence and inner strength through ongoing support.
“I like that our door is open to everybody. I will speak to anyone that I can and have the capacity to.”
Empowering people with inner strength, encouragement, and support is paramount for Sneha, who knows firsthand what it is like to immigrate from another country.
She recalls leaving her homeland of Nepal for Australia. The big change made the first few months very difficult. Sneha recalled that while she was ready for a change in life, she was naïve about how big the change would be and struggled with the English language for the first few months.
“I was so afraid that nobody was going to understand my accent that I just wouldn’t speak at all in class,” she recalls.
“If I went to McDonald’s restaurant, I would order at the kiosk, and even if I got the wrong order, I’d just take it because I could only say please and thank you.”
It took her a while to feel more comfortable speaking English and even speaking up in her university class. She remembers being unable to make any friends for the first six months because of her fear of speaking.
However, as time passed, Sneha realised she had to speak and learn the language, and her role as a community engagement leader at university was a major turning point in her life.
“The interview went really badly – but I got the job,” she recalled.
“I think that prompted me to be like, okay, I can do this, and I have to do something. And so that’s why I got involved with international students.”
When Sneha was appointed to her current role with The Salvation Army, funded by a generous donation from Blundstone Australia Pty Ltd, it aligned perfectly for her to go from a community-based role into another community-based role with similar work.
Without Blundstone Australia Pty Ltd, The Couch program for international students and the local CALD community would not be possible.
And she loves her job.
“It is meeting a critical need in the community. I don’t have to say no to anybody,” she said.
“The Couch sees anyone that is culturally and linguistically diverse. I think the greatest benefit is that a lot of other different organisations that help migrants are very specific in who they are helping, so they will only take on refugees or they only take on humanitarian entrants. That is where migrants who have come here to work or students are getting lost; they have nowhere to go.
“I like that our door is open to everybody. I will speak to anyone that I can and have the capacity to. Some feedback that I’ve heard from a lot of my clients is that it’s nice to have someone that can be like an emotional support person.”
