THE White Nile runs through South Sudan connecting communities, so for Atong Thon, it was the perfect name for a group in Bendigo that brings together South Sudanese women.
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They meet once a week to learn more English, share food, let young children play and discover more about Australian culture. Last week, they played lawn bowls at a local bowling club.
“Playing bowls together was so much fun,” Atong, the group’s founder, said.
The group has grown to about 10 since its formation, and has allowed women to integrate into life in Bendigo.
Atong has lived in Bendigo for two years after her family moved from Canberra. They arrived in Sydney in 2005 after relocating from a Kenyan refugee camp, where Atong spent the first 13 years of her life.
She was born while her family was fleeing violence in Sudan in 1992.
Atong is trying to find work in Bendigo with a Certificate in Aged Care, but even after completing work placements, it has been difficult.
“I am qualified to work in a nursing home, but you don’t always get any interviews,” she said.
“They always ask for experience, but how do you get experience if you haven’t been able to work in a facility?
“It happens a lot, even if you have a Certificate.”
Atong finds that the only jobs available are labour-intensive, such as work in chicken farms. She now volunteers as a receptionist in an attempt to secure a stable job.
Even though it has been a struggle at times, Atong said she is enjoying life in Bendigo.
“At first I thought it was too quiet and a bit boring, but then I found Loddon Campaspe Multicultural Services and was able to meet people,” she said.
Amarni Jok completed her schooling in Bendigo before moving to Melbourne to study international business at university.
She was 8 when her family arrived in Queensland, before they moved to Swan Hill, and then to Bendigo three years ago.
“It was very hard when I first arrived in Australia because I had no English, all I could do was write my name,” Amarni said.
“We were the only black people at our school. I experienced racism at a young age, but it became easier in high school where there were more African students.”
Dabora Dout moved with her children from Swan Hill to Bendigo to be closer to her extended family.
One has entered university, while the other works at Hazeldene’s.
Dabora now helps other people from African backgrounds to settle in Bendigo.
Aluel Mayan Aluel, who moved from Melbourne three years ago, said Bendigo had been warm and accepting.
“I much prefer Bendigo to Melbourne,” she said.
“I am very happy here.”
Maker Mayek: Schooling vital for youth from Sudanese background
As the South Sudanese community in Bendigo continues to grow, lawyer Maker Mayek says it is vital to make sure families have the support to ensure their children stay in school.
Mr Mayek works with Sudanese youth in Melbourne who have entered the criminal justice system, and understands the early warning signs when young people may stop engaging with the community.
Often this is due to feelings of being ostracised from the community, heightened by negative media portrayals, experiencing racism from a young age, and a perceived lack of opportunities to participate in society.
Mr Mayek said Bendigo is fortunate because it can offer the support of a more tight-knit community, where services are often more accessible for families.
Bendigo’s South Sudanese community consists of up to 200 people, including students studying locally, with more families based in Castlemaine.
“I think it’s absolutely important to work with the families right from the get-go so that the families are able to keep tabs on their children’s education,” he said.
“Support the families so that they are able to monitor the progress of their children at school.
“Education is key.”
He said the majority of offenders from the South Sudanese community in Melbourne were aged between 15 and 17 – a difficult time when they were transitioning into adulthood.
“This is the real tricky period for any teenager, when they are transitioning from the early teens to 18, so if multicultural services can really focus on those support services for families, that would solve a lot of problems,” Mr Mayek said.
“I encourage them to finish Year 12 and after that they can start their pathways – whether they want to get into vocational education, whether they want to go to university or whether they want to get into employment.”
Mr Mayek was the guest speaker at the Loddon Campaspe Multicultural Service’s annual general meeting this week.
He spoke about the success of the #AfricanGangs campaign where people of African backgrounds used the hashtag to describe the positive work they were doing in the community, in an effort to combat tabloid media saturation in Melbourne of crime committed by African “gangs”.
The campaign was, in part, due to the lack of diversity of voices in the Australian media.
“Over these years, we’ve had stories being told about Africans, African-Australians – very important and valuable contributors to our community and our country,” Mr Mayek said.
“We’ve never had the opportunity to have a right of reply. Stories have been told about us, we’ve been insulted, we’ve been portrayed in a way that does not reflect the true values of the African person.
“We’ve never had the opportunity to say ‘this is not us’.”
The hashtag quickly went viral and attracted thousands of posts from African-Australians. Mr Mayek himself became a regular commentator on the ABC and in Fairfax Media as a result of the campaign, and it helped other members of the African-Australian community to have a voice in the mainstream media.
It could also have been a factor in Victorian voters’ apparent rejection of the “African gangs” rhetoric of the Coalition at last weekend’s State Election.
Senior figures, including former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and home affairs minister Peter Dutton, reiterated their concern there were “Sudanese gangs” operating in Melbourne, harming public safety.
Sudanese and South Sudanese-born people account for 0.1 per cent of the Victorian population, and 1.1 per cent of crime.
Demographers claim this over-representation is a result of the age profile of the Sudanese community, in which there is a significantly higher number of people aged 16 to 24 – when people are statistically most likely to commit crime – compared with other ethnic groups.
Mr Mayek said there were 70 burglaries committed by people from the Sudanese community between March 2017 and March 2018, and these were the result of “the same group of young people”.
“These young people are known to the law enforcement. The majority of them are in prison. The majority of them are between the age of 15 and 17,” he said.
“Either they have dropped out of schools, or they haven’t been going to school, they do not have jobs, they are not engaged with the community.
“Some of these young people, we don’t know their whereabouts.
“The commonality between the crime statistics and disadvantage is so great, that these crimes, what they tell us, is purely because of disadvantage.
“If we look at disadvantage from a close range, and examine disadvantage for our emerging communities, we would be able to solve some of the problems that we face.”
Amarni Jok is in her second year of study at university in Melbourne after graduating from Bendigo Senior Secondary College. Her family now supports others from African backgrounds to settle in Bendigo.
She said the media portrayal of African people had real-world consequences, and did not reflect the reality of the community.
“There is a small group that ruins it for everyone,” Amarni said.
“Most people have been accepting of us, and only a small percentage were not.”
Cultural diversity in Bendigo continues to grow
The number of people living in Bendigo who were born overseas or have at least one parent born overseas surpassed 25 per cent for the first time in 2016, but the city’s cultural diversity remains below the state and national average.
In the last financial year, Bendigo’s Karen, Afghanistani and South Sudanese communities grew as a result of “ongoing, steady migration to Bendigo”.
Loddon Campaspe Multicultural Services chair Abhishek Awasthi said it was important to continue partnering with the local community and other stakeholders to connect newly-arrived people with services.
LCMS joined with multicultural services in Geelong, Ballarat and Mildura to receive funding for the settlement, engagement and transition support program for 2019 to 2022.
LCSM assisted people from 54 different countries, ranging from the US, UK and Canada, to Mozambique, Solomon Islands and Ghana.
The Zinda Festival was listed as the highlight of 2018, outlined in the LCSM annual report for 2017/18.
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