Purna, 78, says the time she spends in the garden at PCYC Albury every Monday brings her ‘peace and happiness’. Photo: Jodie O’Sullivan.
What started as a bare patch of dirt at Albury PCYC has transformed into a thriving space where the seeds of community and connection are being actively cultivated.
Raised garden beds brimming with vegies, herbs and flowers stand as a living sanctuary for shared culture, storytelling and support for a group of Bhutanese elders who arrive at the PCYC with beaming smiles each Monday morning.
Language barriers, the loneliness of isolation, and trauma gently fade as gnarled hands tend the soil and hearts find joy in human connection and sharing in the fruits of their labours.
There’s beans, spinach, peas, pumpkins, garlic, onions, mustard greens and marigolds (used for festivals and celebrations) … familiar ingredients that can be used for traditional cooking at home.
But this weekly gathering is about so much more than the produce that’s being harvested.
Hari, 71, who moved to Australia as a refugee 16 years ago, does not speak much English, cannot drive and said he often felt lonely at home.
“In the garden I feel connected and thankful,” he said through interpreter and health educator officer Goma Mahat, with the NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors (STARTTS) team in North Albury.
Purna, 78, said gardening at the PCYC brought her “peace and happiness”. She too does not drive and struggles with language barriers, and even though she lives with her husband, daughter and son-in-law, admitted she often felt the pang of social isolation.
The community gardening program for these Bhutanese seniors is grounded in healing, belonging and reconnecting, according to Goma.
And the initiative reflects Dr John Arden’s SEEDS framework for mental wellbeing: Social inclusion, Exercise and Environment, Education, Diet, and Sleep.
Goma said many of these people were forcibly displaced from Bhutan in the early 1990s and, after spending up to two decades in refugee camps in Nepal, were resettled in Australia to begin rebuilding their lives.
“Although resettlement brought safety, it did not remove the lasting impacts of trauma, loss, and prolonged displacement,” Goma said.
“Many older refugees continue to experience social isolation, language barriers, declining physical health, and the loss of meaningful community roles. For many, farming was never simply an occupation, it was identity, purpose, and a way of caring for family and community.”
PCYC Albury manager Tim McLaren said the partnership with STARTTS – like the garden – “has grown organically”, coming to life last year with the support of the Rotary Club of Albury.
“This is about building community connections,” Tim said. “And it’s what the PCYC is all about – bringing community back to the club.”
That goal is certainly being achieved if the success of a recent community fun day is anything to go by.
More than 150 people, many of them new arrivals, representing more than 13 nationalities, came together at the PCYC for a day of shared sports, arts and activities, cooking and connection, with the Red Cross and headspace Albury-Wodonga also taking part.
“It was pretty epic – it’s the third one we’ve held and it was the biggest by far,” Tim said. “We had one woman and her six kids come along who had only been here a week, there was a fantastic Syrian barbecue and even a free op shop.”
The team at STARTTS, which also includes Tika Poudyel and Claire Nevin, helps organise transport, language and cultural supports and organise referrals for local refugees that all help nurture community inclusion.
The specialist, not-for-profit organisation, which has supported refugees and survivors of torture and trauma for more than 35 years, aims to help individuals, families and communities recover from the impacts of trauma and successfully rebuild their lives in Australia.
In this quiet little garden, a once bare patch of dirt is now flourishing, as are the people who tend it.
Tim said there were plans afoot to build a wood-fired pizza oven and charcoal barbecue, and there was a mural still to go up.
Other groups have reached out asking if there is any more space for more gardens to be grown, all via word of mouth.
“This is a great place for these people to come,” Tim said. “And the project doesn’t need millions to survive …
“With a bit of community input and support, you can start a program like this for next to nothing and keep it sustainable.”
