When single mother-of-three Mamie Feah first arrived in Australia in 2008, she had never been behind the wheel.
Back home she said no-one she knew drove.
"When you are poor, you looking for food for your children, so how can you go buy a car?" she told SBS World News.
"What the children will eat?"
A road to independence
After relying on public transport and friends to get around in her new home, the former refugee is on the road to independence.
"What I'm doing now is to be confident, is to be brave," she said, admitting she was initially frightened when she first hit the road.
"I have to take my children to school and I have to take them for their activities."
Ms Feah is part of the Spectrum Migrant Resource Centre's Drive to Thrive program dedicated to refugee and newly arrived migrant communities.
"We've had a successful rate of almost 80 per cent to 90 per cent of our participants gain their licence by the end of it."
Volunteer driving trainer Dube Mgcini is himself a migrant. He arrived in Australia from Zimbabwe in 2003.
He said he was motivated to join the program because he wanted empower other new arrivals.
"It actually gives a lot of the participants their independence," he said.
"They are able to go out there and look for a job, do shopping, look after their children and do whatever they need to do.”
'The program helped me find my first job'
A participant from last year's program, Ayen Nyinpi, now beams sitting behind the wheel of car with her P-plates displayed.
Since she arrived from South Sudan four years ago, she had applied for jobs, but didn’t have much luck finding one.
"Without the licence it is very hard to get a job," she said.
"Whenever I went for an interview, and they ask me do you have a licence and then I say 'no'. So then they say, 'we will call you back' and they don't call anymore."
After a few driving lessons though, Ayen's fortunes have turned.
"I got a job, which is the best," she said. "I'm so happy like I got that job."
"I can move, I can go anytime. It was very hard for me to do a night shift before but now I do the night shift."
'90 percent success rate'
The program runs for up to 16 weeks and participants are given professional driving lessons by instructor Michael Elzanaty.
"They get in a car and they don't know what to do, they don't even know how to hold a steering wheel," she said. "But half a dozen lessons down the track, you see a big difference.”
Once they are confident with the Australian road rules, the Spectrum Migrant Resource Centre, through assisted funding from Maurice Blackburn and Rob Stary Lawyers, then pays for the driving test.
According to Spectrum's Settlement and Migration Services team leader Lyda Dankha, most end up ditching their L-plates for P-plates.
"We've had a successful rate of almost 80 per cent to 90 per cent of our participants gain their licence by the end of it."
'Program is life-changing for women'
Ms Dankha said a lot of the participants are women.
"Some find that it changes their life, a simple task of going shopping for us, can be a task that we don't even think about, but for those women, they have to use public transport, to get their shopping, to take their kids to school."
Each year, the Drive to Thrive Program takes on about 40 drivers in Melbourne's north and west. But due to insufficient funds, staff have had to cut back this year and just a lucky few have been given the green light.
Ayen Nyinpiu hopes that turns around so that others can benefit the way she has and no longer rely on others.
"My uncle used to drive me every morning and I come back by bus, but now, I can go by myself and come."
"There is a lot of people waiting for this opportunity, I hope they can get it."
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