Betul Tuna participated in the afternoon Panel Discussion: Employment enterprises – what’s successful? The following is a photo narrative which captures the spontaneity, vivacity and fun that Betul Tuna shared in her presentation on Hijack’d, a local small-business which builds on social cohesion with younger people in the community. The motto: Hijack’d, Nourish the Conversation.
The start:
- Betul Tuna, a single mum with 3 kids trying to build a future for her family and give back to the community she lives in: Shepparton.
- Suzan Yilmaz, a young Australian student studying in university also trying to start a business and bring something different to her hometown.
- Betul and Suzan: There isn’t a whole lot of options for young people and families that is affordable and open till late hours in Shepparton. So we decided to start a food van named Hijack’d and we will be serving hot and cold drinks will yummy Turkish food.
The Great Plan: The caravan will tour rural and regional towns to positively engage the broader community in conversations about multiculturalism through topics that are relevant to them, while sharing home-cooked Turkish treats and the stories behind them.
Along the way, the project tackles intergenerational issues among the Turkish community by joining up older women to cook their best meals and young people to serve them to the conversation crowds. Far from excluding anyone, the project has also sought approval and support from Shepparton’s traditional owners and it’s first community conversation will discuss our First Nations.
Experience has shown that despite some opposition, community assistance and support has flowed in to help build the project and the caravan.
“The community response has been amazing. overwhelming.””So far there’s been more support – and this ‘wow factor’ – than negativity. But there was [in the beginning] a lot of negative feedback from the broader community, and these are people that not all of them have something to do with Shepparton. But the support was a lot more. People send us messages now on social media saying ‘is there anything I can help out with?'” Betul said.
The Important Stuff: Food
Food for us comes from our relatives.
Food has a culture, a history, a story and relationships.
Hijack’d: Nourish the Conversation:
No party or event is without a reason. This is how we foster new relationships, open doors, and launch new ideas that create business opportunities and investments.
Milestone Events:
Creative Enterprise for Women – Workshop. Walking away from a great event feeling inspired and motivated with amazing women. Special thanks to Multicultural Arts Victoria and Anita Larken for this opportunity. SisterWorks, such an amazing social enterprise for multicultural women. An amazing model that we hope will be adopted in Shepparton.
Hijack’d is apart of one big family from around the world, proud to be apart of something so amazing like Picnic for Peace. Promoting peace and hope.
Picnic 4 Peace was born in November of 2015 at Victoria Park Lake, Shepparton to gather people who have a common hope of Peace in the world for a concert and family activities to picnic, to dance, to sing, to play together, get to know each other better, make new friends and share messages of what peace means to them.
Picnic 4 Peace anywhere in the world. It doesn’t matter if it’s just you, or with a couple a friends or you organise a bigger picnic we’d love you to share with us – upload pictures to social media with hashtag #picnic4peace , tell us what peace means to you and share anything else you would like to about your picnic and where you are. We’d love to hear from you
Sine qua non
The Hijack’d family is made up of diverse, artistic and brilliant people. We have been “Fairley” blessed in 2017 with the support of philanthropic organizations like Fairley Foundation and Ignite Change. Special shout to the City of Greater Shepparton, the Ethnic Council of Shepparton and Moroccan Deli-cacy for all their support and guidance.
