For Dr Luz Restrepo, receiving an Order of Australia Medal in the 2024 Kings Birthday honours is one of the best achievements in her extraordinary life.
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"I am so proud of this opportunity," she said.
"After 14 years of living in Australia, this is the best acknowledgement."
He life story is an incredible one.
Forced to flee Columbia
Dr Restrepo was a GP in her native Columbia where she lived with her husband and two daughters.
However, 14 years ago, while working for a leftist political party, Dr Restrepo and her husband and youngest daughter came to Australia seeking political asylum.
"When we arrived, I had little English, no money, no connections and no career prospects," she said.
In her two suitcases, she brought her most cherished belongings accumulated over the past 45 years - books, family photos, and music.
It was while attending free English classes that her life changed again when she met a women in similar conditions to herself struggling to find work.
"That was the moment I found my mission," Dr Restrepo said.
"To develop a model where women like me and I could empower ourselves by learning through working together and supporting each other to find meaningful jobs."
SisterWorks born out of necessity
In 2013, she and other like-minded women founded SisterWorks Inc in Bendigo, first in a voluntary capacity to one now thriving with 20 employees and a $1.4 million annual turnover.
"My model of supporting the social inclusion of migrant women attracted the attention of UN Women, who ended up working with SisterWorks," she said.
In late February 2020, before the first COVID-19 lockdown started, Dr Restrepo and her team began analysing how to support women in isolation and transfer the 'learning by doing' model to their homes.
"This led to the idea of making reusable face masks," she said.
"We needed to find a way to provide sewing machines and technology support to keep women connected with the organisation and earn an income.
"In the middle of a global crisis, I found myself pushing people to make significant changes despite the prevailing fear."
In May 2020, Dr Restrepo left SisterWorks to take her ideas to the next level.
Helping migrants into work in small communities
Learning from this experience during COVID and seeking ways to support entrepreneurial migrant women, she founded Migrant Women in Business Pty Ltd in June 2020 in partnership with Corinne Kemp.
"This national network connects more than 230 migrant businesswomen with their colleagues, providing a platform for support and collaboration," Dr Restrepo said.
Seven years ago she bought a piece of vacant land in Maldon and since 2021 has been "living on it" in the house she and her family built.
Not content with her work to date, since moving to Maldon she has have been looking for ways to encourage migrants to move to the region.
An invitation to keep working
In November 2023, she founded Made by Many Minds Holdings Pty Ltd (traded as Village Business) to foster business communities in Australia's small towns (with populations of less than 10,000 people).
"At the same time, I am working on transitioning Migrant Women in Business from a business owned and led by Corinne and me to a co-operative model that can open opportunities for migrant women business owners in numerous ways," she said.
Dr Restrepo said the co-operative structure fosters community and solidarity, enabling these women to "raise their voices collectively and advocate for their needs and rights".
"Migrant families have much to contribute socially, culturally, and economically," she said.
"One crucial area we need to improve is increasing the representation of women, especially migrant women, in decision-making spaces.
"This is why I am now running as a Mount Alexander Shire council candidate in this October's upcoming elections."
Dr Restrepo said she was determined to give back a lot of value in return for the opportunity Australia gave her and her family.
"(The King's Birthday honour) is an invitation for me to keep working," she said.
Dr Restrepo was one of a number of people in central Victoria to receive an OAM, including Phillip Collins for services to the Lockington community and Macedon's Samantha Turner for services to nursing.
