T he sound of chatter and the smell of flowers drifts out the door of a small studio in Brunswick East in Melbourne . Inside, a world away from war-torn Gaza, five Palestinian women work arranging fresh blooms from the Thursday morning market into bunches. Each bouquet is sold via a subscription service that directly pays their wage .
It’s part of a training initiative by social enterprise florist The Beautiful Bunch to help women fleeing Gaza access the Australian workforce. The training program was launched in June after a long process of back and forth with community groups and people working on the ground. The aim is to support new arrivals with a sense of community, work skills development and – crucially – a wage, according to its founder, Jane Marx.
Sara, a Palestinian woman, says working at The Beautiful Bunch is a welcome relief after she arrived in Australia in January. “I was happy, it was a new thing for me [where] I am learning something new,” Sara says. She arrived in Australia on a visitor visa and was able to move onto a bridging visa with work rights with the help of a local charity.
Work involves unloading the flowers, preparing stems by removing leaves and organising them in fresh water before arranging them into bouquets for the Girls from Gaza subscribers. The response has been overwhelming – and more Palestinian women want to join the program. “Mostly it is referrals from the existing women who work here putting us in touch with those withi.