Syrian Lawyer flees homeland and pursues career as Chef

Mayez is a former refugee from Syria and has been in Australia for 18months and working as an apprentice chef at Park House Cafe, in Toowoomba city, for 15 of those months.

When Mayez first landed in Australia, he could hardly speak a sentence in English but here he is most of the way through a Certificate 3 in Commercial Cooking and having a lengthly conversation in English with us at his workplace cafe.

It all started when the Head Chef of Park House Cafe, Bryant, gave Mayez an opportunity to cook.

“I’ll give anyone a shot” says Head Chef Bryant “If they really want to learn, I’ll teach them. It’s all in the mind, if you think you can, you can, and positive mindset will make it easier.”

In 2003 Bryant moved to Australia from Malaysia as an international student. As an immigrant he understands the challenges of learning the language, culture and working hard to achieve your dreams “I didn’t know anything about cooking before I came to Australia.” says Bryant “I worked hard. I stayed up late many nights watching Youtube videos to learn chef techniques.”

“I keep telling Mayez ‘If I can do it, you can do it too’.“

Mayez is very thankful for Bryant’s support and they share a special friendship. “Bryant is my boss" says Mayez “but also my teacher and my brother. We are family. He has helped me with everything. He believed in me. He has taught me many things and is always encouraging me, even when it’s hard.”

Mayez speaks fondly of his life in Syria, before the war ‘I miss Syria a lot. I love my homeland and I had a good life there as a child. But since the wars, the last 10 years have been very hard. There’s nothing left anymore. Everyone is gone. There’s nothing left in Syria for me.’

Mayez’s friends and family from Syria have mostly dispersed to safer areas in the Middle East, Europe or Australia. Mayez says ‘I wanted to go anywhere to be safe. Anywhere’.

Mayez is not only safe in Australia borders, but he is thriving here. He’s working hard to learn new skills, improve English and sustain employment. Long term, Mayez may enter back into the Law field, and will need to do a masters in Academic Law at an Australian University, as Mayez’s Syrian qualifications aren’t recognised to practice in Australia.

We wish Mayez all the best with his future endeavours and are proud of his ‘can do’ attitude and efforts.

We are very thankful to business owners, like Bryant, who make space in their workplaces for refugees to up-skill and gain employment as contributing citizens in the community.

Invite us come speak about the valuable work of You Belong at your workplace or business.

Give this Christmas to help welcome and empower new refugees, just like Mayez.