Wagga's 2020 Refugee Week marked without celebration due to COVID-19, but still plenty of stories to tell

Fleeing when she was just eight months old, she does not even have a birth certificate. She has lived 23 years inside a refugee camp in Kenya. That was until two years ago when she arrived in Wagga, with her brother and his children.

"It's all I've known since I was born, I've never seen Somalia. We had to leave because of the civil war," Ms Hussein said.

When the Kenyan government made moves to close the camps and send families like Ms Hussein's back to the war-ravaged Somalia, Ms Hussein's cousin in Australia doubled her efforts to bring them to a new home.

"[My cousin] had been in Australia for 20 years. I met her at Wagga Airport," she said.

"I wasn't ever thinking we would come. I thought the camp would be the end, I would be there forever or I would go back to Somalia.

"The first time when we came from Somalia, we were running from war and we had somewhere safe to stay [in Kenya] but it was not secure. Now I feel like I am home."

When the news of her imminent departure from the Kenyan camp reached Ms Hussein, it arrived during her lowest point.

"We had never had anything before. When we got the VISA, when I was in the camp it was [during] a lot of rain and we lost everything we had," Ms Hussein said.

"Our tent, our food, everything was gone. We were trying to get to a dry place when I was told we had the VISA."

It took another two years before the family would arrive in Wagga. Life in Australia was a stark difference to everything they had ever experienced before. In the first instance, they had a house.

"We never had a fridge in the camp, we would have to go to the market every day get what we wanted to cook. You cannot store anything," Ms Hussein said.

"I saw people smiling, they were so welcoming."

While in the camp, Ms Hussein did attend primary school, but since moving to Wagga, she has completed her TAFE qualifications, become an assistant nurse, learned to drive, and was hoping to begin a university degree before the COVID-19 pandemic forced the closure of physical campuses.

"In the camp, most of the young people don't go to school. The lives of refugees are very low, you can't get a good job, you can't go outside the camp and when you get a job inside the camp, the priority is for the citizens," Ms Hussein said.

Enas Mohamed arrived in Wagga for the first time in 2010 along with her husband and two children. After a brief sojourn to Broken Hill, the family returned in 2016.

Born in Sudan, before arriving in Australia, Ms Mohamed spent six years working alongside the United Nations to support refugees in Egypt.

"The program I worked with, I started in Egypt with South Sudanese [refugees]. The children have been there a very long time, they have been abused, they have seen violence," Ms Mohamed said.

"I had many programs to support them, I organised activities and put them on the right track."

Throughout her years, Ms Mohamed estimates she had helped up to 400 refugee families. Part of the job included providing families with information about Australia.

"When I came to Australia, my life changed. I am working here, but I was much more active in Egypt," Ms Mohamed said.

Currently studying her certificate in community service, she has hopes to one day return to her work in supporting refugee families as a caseworker in Australia.

Between June 14 and June 20 this year was the annual Refugee Week. Dubbed the Year of Welcome, the 2020 celebrations were unfortunately cancelled due to the COVID-19 restrictions on gatherings. Each year, the party in Wagga attracts 1000 visitors from around 40 nations.

Having lived in Australia now for 9 years, and with her experiences travelling around the nation, Ms Mohamed said it was enormously missed from the year's social calendar.

"Each year, the Multicultural Council do an amazing party. Living in Wagga, this is family. We have different faces but the same heart," Ms Mohamed said.

Three years ago, Hadiya Cumbar arrived in Wagga after spending three years in a refugee camp in Turkey with nine other members of her immediate family.

Born in Northern Iraq, Ms Cumbar is a Yazidi, which is one of the world's most persecuted people groups.

"It was a hard life in Turkey, we lived in the camp. We had to spend most of our time in the tent," Ms Cumbar said.

"In winter, the snow and the rain was hard. Sometimes, it was hard to stay warm."

Arriving in Wagga meant bidding a sad farewell to some of her family, including her older brother who went to live in Germany.

"I have two brothers and four sisters in Australia," she said. "I was so happy to come to a safe country. It is so beautiful here, so quiet."

"I miss [those overseas] too much. I see them via Facebook and WhatsApp but it's not the same."

During her years in the Turkish camp, Ms Cumbar managed to receive an education that would be equivalent to an Australian year 9. Since arriving in Wagga, she has enrolled in TAFE to study English and childcare.

"In the camp, you can't study what you want, you don't have classes," Ms Cumbar said.

"I want to study to be an assistant teacher."