“If what I’ve done can encourage other women to learn and get a qualification, then I’m happy to tell my story.”

Sayeda Aziz, or Maria to most, fled the war in Afghanistan with her family 30 years ago, when she was only 16 years old.

And it was this experience that mapped the course of her life and career, to where she is today – having just finished her studies in counselling with Careers Australia, complementing her extensive work in interpreting with refugees.

No mean feat for a woman balancing full time work and raising three kids.

We spoke with her to find out how her past has influenced her career changes, and how she managed to transform her future.

What was it like coming to Australia as a refugee?

It was very difficult for us, especially at my age it was difficult. I mean at any age it is very hard, but the younger you are the better; my other siblings were younger and it was better and easier for them. For me because I knew a lot more and I was watching my parents going through a tough time, it was very hard watching them go through this.

You leave all of your belongings, your family – my grandfather was alive at that time my father’s brother, my uncle, their families, his sisters, on my mum’s side – everyone was still in Afghanistan when we left. So that was a difficult situation for them to not know if their family was going to survive.

After you arrived in Australia, what did you decide to do?

I went to college here and studied English and then dental nursing.  I finished but I didn’t like working as a dental nurse. Then I decided to do social work so I went back to India and finished social work there.

After that I came back to Australia to work in welfare work, plus interpreting was something that was extremely needed at that time. There were lots of boats coming and many people migrating, so languages were very important.

I speak Pashto, Dari, Persian, Vasi-vari, Urdu and Hindi. And I thought, well, I could help in this area, so I did interpreting for quite a long time. When it became a formal qualification in 2000, I got my diploma and the interpreting accreditation.

What inspired you to study counselling as well?

I have been working as a resettlement officer and a caseworker in governmental and non-governmental organisations for many years, during which I noticed the lack of knowledge in cultural background can become a disability during a counselling session. Specifically language, as much as I promote the use of an interpreter. For a counsellor, in order to help a client efficiently, it is crucial to be familiar with the language that client is speaking plus the cultural background knowledge is a great addition.

We all know that they’re coming and that they are suffering, I see that because I watched my parents going through re-settlement issues and how much counselling you really need at that time.

With counselling it’s to do with peoples emotions and you’re dealing with people’s lives and if you don’t speak the language you’re going through a third party which is an interpreter. Being an interpreter made me realise how much you’re losing the depth into what they’re saying. By the time the sentence is relayed back to the professional the client has forgotten what they’ve said.

If you don’t know the culture, what they’ve been through or what is happening, all of this was the reason I wanted to do counselling. As a caseworker you do so much counselling all the time but really it’s important to understand it properly and study it so I did. And I’m not going to stop here, I have to go further and study more.

How did you manage your studies while working full time and raising a family?

I was nervous in the beginning as I had a job and three lovely children, I was not sure if I could manage to fit it all in. But Careers Australia has made it easy and the flexibility was great. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without that.

The facilities we had were really beautiful and comfortable, they help people who want to change careers or people who having been looking after their kids for a long time and have been out of the workforce, all of that is encouraging and we’re all there for each other. There’s no competition we actually complement each other.

Where do you see yourself in the future?

I want to be an excellent counsellor who can help thousands of people with a holistic approach. I would like to facilitate workshops, write about my experience and my work in Afghanistan during 2011 to 2013. I want to share stories of cultural cruelties to women and children.

If I can do it anyone can. As there nothing that is impossible. As impossible in fact tells us that I M possible, if we look at the word carefully.

Would you ever consider changing careers?