For many people with disabilities living in regional areas – employment opportunities can be hard to come by. But a brother-sister duo south of Adelaide are determined to change that by setting up a farm that's providing meaningful jobs and financial independence for their employees.
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00:00On a small block of land near the town of Finis, sits an egg farm with a mission.
00:08Inside this van, Jinder Holland is collecting and sorting eggs.
00:12At first, he didn't like working with chickens.
00:15As my shift progressed to more and more shifts, I'm here at the farm, I'm beginning to like
00:24the chickens.
00:25Yeah.
00:26Jinder has Wardenburg syndrome and is deaf in his left ear.
00:30In the past, he worked in hospitality and at a factory, but they weren't the right fit.
00:35They didn't understand my disability, my hearing, my eyesight.
00:42That was a challenge.
00:45Gabby Kinsley didn't tell people about her disability for fear of being treated differently.
00:50They definitely don't say, oh, well, we don't want you because you're disabled, but you
00:56get that feeling.
00:57Support worker Tracey Davis is not surprised.
01:00It is very frustrating that we treat people with a disability with a lot of disrespect.
01:09It's a stigma the brother and sister owners of this farm are working to overcome.
01:13I guess the key part is that it's people that are underemployed in our workforce, so people
01:19that haven't had a job and who are able to keep a job and hold employment, but they haven't
01:25really been given that opportunity before.
01:27Due to the success of the business, these farmers are planning to open a second location,
01:32providing more employment and training opportunities.
01:35We would love then for those participants to be able to train other people who want
01:41to come into the program and run it like a 12-week program.
01:45So that would be, I guess, where we're headed.
01:47The brothers are just appreciative of the opportunity.
01:50It's given me hope, given me a job.
01:54It's given me, you know, something to look forward to every day to come to work.
02:01Small legs making a big difference.