Soofia, Iran

I came here, met friends. When you are new to a city, it is nice to have new people to know.”

I am Soofia from Iran. I was software programming in Iran. I came to Australia to study a Bachelor of Cyber Security in Western Australia. After three years I had friend who lived in Perth but working in Brisbane, met husband through him, and spent eight months in Brisbane.

My husband got job in Shepparton in 2015. We moved there, got married there. After 2 years husband got job in Melbourne. We have been four months in Melbourne. Just before that we had a workshop in Shepparton run by Luz, she was there talking about SisterWorks and I was wishing there was something like that in Shepparton. I came here, met friends. When you are new to a city, it is nice to have new people to know.
I started with SisterWorks products, then I came up with idea of pet accessories and bandana bibs for babies. I love my pets, so that was good inspiration for my products. My mum is a tailor, she was always sewing everything, I would watch her but I never thought I would be doing it one day. I automatically pick up skills.

I have sewed for myself before, some clothes. With my mum, we went to a class, and there was a short especially for yoga, can stretch in them. There wasn’t a lot in Iran, and had to get them from India. Together we made yoga mats, bag, shorts.

I hope to stay in Australia after study. At the start I was depressed after two years. English was hard, subjects were hard, thought I would go back to my country, told my husband I didn’t want to stay. He suggested to wait and see. I have new hope, I had something to stay for.

Nothing special in mind about, just taking things as they come and see what happens. When you feel like you can communicate with others, you can say more, when you can’t it’s hard. I hope to continue with development, and still have to do an internship. I want to continue with new studies

SisterWorks is something I always have with me. I don’t just like doing the serious work, nice to have SisterWorks here to do too.