‘A free and dignified life’: the regional Australian communities welcoming refugees

‘We are very grateful for all the help from the Bendigo community,’ says Afghan refugee Sakineh, who came to Australia with her teenage sons under the community refugee integration and settlement pilot. Photograph: Steve Womersley/The Guardian

Sakineh and her family were granted residency in Australia six months ago.

After fleeing the war in Afghanistan and seeking refuge in Iran, the widowed mother-of-two settled in Bendigo in Victoria’s north along with her teenage sons. It was a world away from the turmoil she’d come to know.