Cabramatta resident lives without power

WHERE there's a will there's a way. Cabramatta's Rose Taurisano, 54, is proof of that.

She's anaemic, was unemployed for the past decade and lived life sans electricity and a mobile phone. She survived on $24 for a fortnight after paying rent.

But she wasn't fazed.

"It wasn't really hard living without power or a phone," she said. "I had a hard life growing up and when you only have a little bit of money you just learn to improvise with what you've got."

But each day for those 10 years Ms Taurisano was determined to find a job.

"I went to every place asking for a job and when they turned me down for my age and health it made me fight more. I always had hope and told myself there was something out there for me.

"I didn't know what it was and even though it seemed dark there was a little light out there for me."

Her perseverance paid off as she found the little light at the end of the tunnel late last year.

Non-profit agency WISE Employment in Cabramatta, which opened in April last year, helped Ms Taurisano land a job in November.

She now works 15 hours a week as a cleaner at Rochester Private Hotel in Ashfield.

Case manager Debrah Mckee said Ms Taurisano's case wasn't rare in the Fairfield area.

"Most of our clients are in the same age category as they're often the ones who find it hard to get a job," she said. "This frustrates me because, really, they're the most reliable age group and they have a lot of skills. Yet people think they aren't capable or don't have stamina."

Fairfield-Liverpool has one of the highest rates of long-term unemployment in NSW, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Ms Mckee agreed and said the Fairfield area was one of the "toughest places for employment".

"The unemployment rates are very high here and that's why I'm so proud of Rose who kept herself optimistic after all these years and now for the first time in 10 years she's actually got some money," she said.