Sudanese Refugees

Jon is a 28 year old Dinka from Sudan. When he   was 8 years old Jon and his mother fled the brutality of the civil war in Sudan. While crossing a river on the way to Ethiopia, Jon’s mother drowned and on reaching the refugee camp he was told that his father had been killed. For most of the next 20 years Jon lived and worked in Ethiopian refugee camps.

Tragically, Jon’s story is not exceptional among the Sudanese refugees coming to Australia under the UN humanitarian refugee programme. Last year more than 5000 African refugees settled in cities around Australia, with the majority coming to the western suburbs of Sydney. Many of the young people have spent their whole lives in the tented communities of refugee camps, against a backdrop of violence, fear and insecurity.

They come to Australia full of hope, but the going is not easy. Large families, lack of education, trauma, little English, poor employment prospects, huge cultural differences and inadequate re-settlement programmes leave them vulnerable and poor. Many come without any knowledge of western culture and practices. Newly settled families have spent days living on cold, uncooked food because they did not know how to use a stove. The sick baby of a family from Burundi died because his parents had never used a phone and no one could understand their language.

Unemployed young men hang about the streets and railway stations and soon find themselves in conflict with the police. In an effort to respond to this need the Catholic Education offices in Sydney have developed intensive English courses in schools, employed African teacher aides and invested in a programme for training African teachers at the Australian Catholic University. There is much to be done.

Youth Homelessness

Across Australia on any one night, there are 26,060 homeless young people aged 12 -18 years

• 55% are girls and 45 % are boys
• Their average age is 15.6 years
• Approx 12,000 of these young people remain within the education system

Homelessness is best understood as a “process” rather than an “event”. Young people go through various stages before they become chronically homeless and develop a self-identity as a “homeless person”.    

The first tangible indicator of homelessness is when a young person leaves home for at least one night without their parents’ permission. If the underlying family problems are not resolved at this point,  this may progress to the young person moving in and out of home, staying at relatives or friends’ places and possibly sleeping rough.

The next step is the “permanent break” which signifies that the young person no longer thinks of him or herself as belonging to a family unit and is unlikely to return home on a continuing basis. This involves a significant shift in a young person’s sense of self identity; homelessness becomes a way of life and the young person often becomes immersed in a homeless sub-culture. 

Many of these young people come to accept crime, substance abuse, drug dealing and prostitution as a way of life;  – certainly as a means of  survive and sometimes the only way open to them.

Early intervention- the provision of assistance at the earliest stages of this “homeless process” - is critical.

Most young people have their first experience of homelessness while still at school [82% are 15 years or younger] and schools have a vital role to play in this process. Schools can work with young people at critical times of family tension. They can identify students at risk and can support young people and families to resolve conflict in these initial stages. They can also support young people who need to leave home, to stay in school and make a smooth transition to independent living. To do this, schools must have teachers who are educated and alert to the initial risk factors, a well developed student welfare system, and strong links with local community support services.

 In NSW, Government policy is slowly beginning to recognise the importance of early intervention and has recently made an explicit policy commitment towards building an early intervention and prevention capacity in schools and local communities. Let’s hope that the financial commitment follows!

Wendy Hildebrand ibvm

Courage to Move – East Timor

Over the past few weeks Loreto Sisters, Diaan Stuart and Anne Byrne, have arrived in East Timor and are currently involved in language training before taking up their positions at the Marist Brothers Teachers’ College. Anne Kelly arrives on 27 March to work with a local East Timorese Agency focussing on women’s literacy in rural areas.

East Timor, with a population of around 900,0000, is currently one of the poorest countries in the world. With little infrastructure and a 500 year history of colonial domination, first by the Portuguese and then by the Indonesians, the challenges are enormous. Problems associated with education, communication and administration are compounded by the issue of language. Portuguese has been declared the official language, despite the fact that everyone who has been to school since 1975 speaks Bahasa Indonesian. There are a number of local languages, Tetun being the major one.  About 40% of the population are under 15 years of age which makes huge demands for education and employment. Around 42% of the population are illiterate and 50% are unemployed. Subsistence agriculture is the main way of making a living. However, large reserves of oil and gas are found in the Timor Sea and the challenge for this small nation will be how the benefits of these are used for the good of all.