Almost three years to the day after Kabul fell to the Taliban, Naqeebullah Sadat celebrated another milestone in his life besides escaping with his family to Australia - he was a proud holder of a NSW driver's licence.
The former interpreter for Australian Defence Forces in Afghanistan had tried eight times to pass his test.
But it wasn't until he took subsidised lessons with Gymea Community Aid, a Sydney refugee and migrant resettlement organisation, that he passed.
"If you don't have a driver's licence in Australia, it's like you're paralysed," he told an audience at a graduation ceremony for dozens of recent arrivals who also completed the course.
"I was overconfident in my skills because I was driving in Afghanistan and not passing here ... I was giving up hope; it became very stressful.
"As soon as I got my licence, it simplified my commute to my job, doing groceries and picking up my children from school - it gives you freedom," Mr Sadat said.
Funded by Transport for NSW, the Driver Licensing Access Program prepares drivers from various target groups including refugees to be safe on Australian roads in order to get their licences.
Last year 351 people were killed in NSW road accidents, a sharp increase of 25 per cent on 2022.
Mom Bishwakarma, the program's manager, said 16,000 instruction hours had been logged across eight locations in Greater Sydney in the past year.
With volunteer instructors and schools aboard, the transition has been smoothed for more than 600 new migrants and refugees who have acquired different licences.
For Saba Abdullah, who has been in Australia for just more than 12 months, the cheap lessons were a useful primer.
She fled the war in Yemen after Iranian-backed insurgent Houthis overthrew the government, triggering a proxy war with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates supported militarily by the United States.
The decade-long conflict has left about 17 million people, or about half the country and including nearly three million children, on the brink of famine, making it one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes worldwide.
"I had a good life before the war and had a nice job ... but I decided to go to another country to be the only hope for my family because the situation is very bad, so at least I'm outside so I can help (financially)," she told AAP.
Describing herself as adventurous, the former administration officer used to drive across Yemen's majestic mountains and in Malaysia, where she was an asylum-seeker for several years waiting for her humanitarian visa to Australia.
"I thought I am confident because I have been driving for seven years but I didn't pass the test the first time after five lessons."
While studying at TAFE she attended a presentation about the driving program and called up Gymea Community Aid where she ended up taking seven lessons.
The recent graduate uses her friend's car for now but wants a job in her field urgently so she can save up for a car to get around Sydney.
"I use public transportation to get everywhere - half of my life is spent on it," she joked.
