Wise words: How food ‘saved my life’

Sudanese refugee Leita Hassan, 43, and Mexican migrant China Gonzalez, 32, met working at Wise, a catering collective selling meals made by migrant and refugee women. As told to Frances Morton.

Leita Hassan: There was something with the government and my husband and we had to leave Sudan immediately becauseit was not safe for meand my two children.

I left Sudan [and went] to Malaysia. I lived in Malaysia for four-and-a-half years under the United Nations and came here as a quota refugee through Mā ngere [Refugee Resettlement Centre]. I live in Mt Roskill, Auckland, and now I have three kids, one in university, one in secondary school and a little one in kindy, aged 19, 16 and 4.

My husband is working as a community navigator. I work as a market co-ordinator for Wise I’ll tell you something very nice, [Wise] changed my life. I met a lady 8 years [ago] who recommended I join Wise to cook, because I had never cooked before. Even in Malaysia. I cooked rice, chicken, but no big meals.

Wise supports women with a refugee background to help them [with] many skills. When you come here you don’t have any skills. My English, I cannot talk very well, but when you join Wise it changed me immediately. I’m more confident. I can explain, I can listen.

I got many skills from Wise, like cooking class, food safety, coffee class, swimming. I didn’t swim before I came to New Zealand. Zumba, painting.

My first impressions of New Zealand was like a small village. The airport in Malaysia was so big and here, [when we arrived and were waiting for] the bus to come, my daughter, she said, ‘‘Mummy, this is a zombie area’’.

But I like it because the weather is so nice, not like Malaysia, which is raining and polluted. Here [it] is clear. And the people – very kind, every time, happy.

I met China. The first meeting was in a staff meeting, in the office. Immediately I had an impression of her. This lady is very strong and very direct. She wants to make something nice, but very fast. You don’t have time to sit. I like this about her because she’s very straightforward.

China Gonzalez: We have both been here for the same amount of time. I will have been here for eight years in October. I came straight from Mexico, from my hometown, Guadelajara, the second-biggest city in Mexico. My first impression was the opposite. This city is very small and the weather is only good in summer compared to Mexico.

I immediately realised it’s the land of many, many opportunities.

I comefrom an artist background. I do a lot of stage things. I was going through the struggles of being a migrant, not fitting in.

Then I realised that my own personal struggles were reflected in every single performer who I saw who wanted to perform but didn’t have a chance. So I started creating community spaces for Hispanic people to perform in. That’s when I realised that on top of being an artist and performer I really care about community. And that’s how I ended up applying for the job at Belong. Belong is the wider umbrella organisation that takes care of Wise.

Now I have the really cool opportunity to do what I was doing for my community but for many other communities.

Leita was a cook for Wise, one of the caterers, but now Leita’s the market co-ordinator. She’s incredibly passionate about not just the project, but the women themselves. My job is to make sure theproject works, but Leita’s always the voice that is saying, “what about the women?” The best thing about having Leita is she reminds me of what the actual point of Wise is.

LH: Because of Covid, [for] two years, women stayed home.

Many people have depression now because of staying homeand not having enough money. Before we had a hub and coming together and chatting and laughing. [Some women] are still now afraid to be going outside because of Covid.

CG: The ultimate goal is to empower them so they can take care of themselves. But we also have to acknowledge that what we went through was horrible for everyone, but for women like the Wise women it’s even worse, because they are already suffering from a lot of isolation, being migrants, not handling the language alot of the time. Being the second visa holder means you’re the one that stays home and there’s less opportunity to connect. So that’s the bit where we do want to make sure we take care of them to the degree that they can then take care of themselves.

Leita is organising different markets. She knows the women and knows who might be up for the challenge. She has a stall at the Balmoral market, which is twice a month on Fridays. Each time she takes one of the women to train them.

We have women from North Africa, India, Sri Lanka, Lebanon, The Philippines, Malaysia, Pakistan, Chile, Afghanistan, South Africa.

LH:

Women coming together are happy.

CG: The main thing is the connection. What connects them is they’ve been isolated and when they get to this group they see a chance of not being in that position any more. The human, one-on-one. We had a morning tea not long ago and this story was in everyone’s mouth: “Before Wise I was suffering from depression, I couldn’t settle in the country.”

There are not that many pathways. I have the amazing privilege of coming super young. I was 24 when I first got here and I’m bilingual. Even then I found it isolating. It took me so long to understand the New Zealand accent. I was staying with an English man and I would go everywhere with him because I was like, I don’t understand these people.

LH: The accent is so fast. Eating some words.

CG: It took me a long time here to be like, OK I’m properly settled.

In New Zealand everyone tends to be nice and friendly, but then you go home by yourself. How do you make those friends? I think the lived experience of these women tends to be quite similar. Once they start cooking, the food connects usall. We all really like food.