By Chris Shearer for Anglican Media Melbourne

A remarkable young man has teamed up with St Peter’s Eastern Hill [parish church] and [the social advocacy organisation] Anglicare Australia to help Melbourne’s homeless learn the secrets of making coffee.

Adolph Mora, a West Papuan asylum seeker, is the proprietor of Mora E’zpresso, a new social enterprise that will give beneficiaries of the Lazarus Centre for the homeless, jointly run by St Peter’s Eastern Hill and Anglicare, the opportunity to develop their skills as baristas on their path to finding regular work.

Vicar of St Peter’s Eastern Hill, Father Hugh Kempster, told The Melbourne Anglican it was great to see the project officially launched only a little over a year since a report identified the opportunity for the Lazarus Centre to provide greater employment training, and that it wouldn’t have been possible without Adolph’s help.

“Once we met Adolph things accelerated about a year on the original plans. The advantage of Adolph, as well as being able to pump out 200 coffees a day… is that he also trains other baristas. So he’s just the sort of person we were looking for,” he says. “We’re just delighted that he is working with us for the training program.”

Adolph himself is well suited for the role, knowing the struggles and hard work that come from trying to begin a new life.

“I came as a refugee in early 2006,” he says, remembering how as a 23 year old he and 42 others from West Papua rowed canoes to Cape York [in the north of the state of Queensland].

After being granted a temporary protection visa he made his way to Melbourne where he and his companions were helped to settle into their new surroundings “by the good people of St Hilary’s Kew and Anglicare.”

Eventually Adolph found employment, working his way up from dishwasher to barista at a cafe in the city’s east. He saved his money, and eventually was able to buy his own coffee machine and build a coffee cart in St Hilary’s “Men’s shed” so that he could start his own business.

The partnership with St Peter’s and Anglicare has meant that he gets valuable support and experience as a small business owner while being able to help those who could use a chance.

“I thought ‘that’s a good chance to pass on some of my knowledge’,” he says. “Pass it on and give it to people who are going to need it, to see if I can train them so they can build up themselves.”

“I find it lots of fun to do that, instead of going to work for someone else,” says Adolph. “We’ve had very good feedback from the boys doing the training, which is really, really good.”

“Adolph is a remarkable young man, just a symbol of what can be possible,” Fr Hugh says. “What a great example of someone who is incredibly resilient, starts a new life, and what a contribution to Australian society.”

Officially launched on Sunday 26 July by the visiting Bishop of Chelmsford, the Rt Revd Stephen Cottrell, the coffee cart project intends to operate each Sunday at St Peter’s Eastern Hill, with an eye to expanding to five or six days a week in a variety of locations. Fr Hugh says the measure of success for the program is not just its economic viability, but also ensuring that the trainee baristas are able to use their skills to find work elsewhere.

“We’ll be able to employ a very small number through our own program, but we would also then be encouraging people, once they have some skills as a barista and the hospitality industry, that there will be things that will open up,” he said.

For Adolph, though, the greatest reward is being able to fulfil his dreams while helping those less fortunate than himself. “I am very excited,” he says. “We want to make it happen. We know we’re going to have a tough journey through the future, but we’re going to take it as it is, take it through.”