Overview
A pop-up by the name of Mazi Mas is bringing a whole lot of goodness to Sydney — in two important ways. Firstly, it’s providing female migrants, refugees and asylum seekers with training and employment. Secondly, it’s bringing you fun, tasty dinners, in cafes that you’d usually find closed after dark.
A not-for-profit project, Mazi Mas kicked off in London in 2012, thanks to founder and CEO Nikandre Kopcke. While studying for a Masters of Gender at the London School of Economics, she met an Aussie by the name of Maggie Lloyd, who decided to bring the project to Sydney.
“In both the developed and developing world, women do the lion’s share of care work, cooking and cleaning and looking after children,” Lloyd told Mamamia. “This is a way of celebrating that work, and rewarding it with fair wages … Its main aims are around celebrating the skills the [participants] already had, but there’s also the practical element of finding ongoing work in a new country and having formal and local qualifications.”
This year’s events have included spring dinners at Ultimo’s Lush Bucket Café, autumn dinners at Potts Point’s Café Dov and Fijian feasts at Darlinghurst’s The Rusty Rabbit. And once a dinner's all done? Mazi Mas has teamed up with the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre to help participants find jobs. And, so far, more than 50 percent of them have landed work in hospitality.
Keep an eye on what's next for Mazi Mas and where they'll be setting up shop via Facebook.
Images: Mazi Mas/Facebook.