By Julie Power
With her new job, Sudanese refugee Margaret Tong is driving to all corners of Sydney, visiting places and doing things that a few years ago were unimaginable. Even the prospect of driving without her son beside her operating the GPS was once a scary prospect.
Adol Kanach shows off an African head wrap at a session to celebrate a program that has helped Sudanese refugees find work. Credit: Steven Siewert
More than a decade after she arrived in Australia as a refugee from South Sudan, Mrs Tong - a mother of six - last week celebrated her first 18 months of permanent work.
After completing an employment program that matched a group of North and South Sudanese women with a mentor, she got a permanent job - her first - working as a community care worker visiting people in their homes.
Offered by the non profit Horn of Africa Development Agency (HARDA) in Homebush West, the program has helped find jobs for 31 out of the 48 women who participated over the past two years. It was funded by two grants from the Scanlon Foundation, totalling $38,000.
Nearly all the women were previously reliant on unemployment benefits, said the manager of policy and projects with HARDA, Fiona Carr.
"Centrelink is failing these women," she said after a session last week to review the program. "[Centrelink] doesn't understand their needs and the barriers to employment that someone with very little or no literacy faces, especially when combined with a lack of Australian experience." Many of the women had been traumatised, growing up during the Sudanese civil wars.
Despite years of English classes, many required one on one help.
Ms Carr said a woman applying for a job as a kitchenhand was required to do an online psychological test. Nuances in the language stumped her, and she failed it.
From the top clockwise, Rose Lawa, Adol Kanach, and Margaret Tong.Credit: Steven Siewert
The program included practical skills ranging from online applications, resume writing, sending emails and even using a GPS to get around. Mentors helped them get jobs, and keep them, providing advice on issues that arose in the workplace. Underemployment was a continuing problem, and many wanted more hours, said Ms Carr.
When Sawsan Demah, 35, arrived as a refugee in 2005 with two young children, a teacher had to hold her hand so she could write her name in English.
Unable to read and write in her native language because girls weren't educated, particularly from remote villages like the one where she grew up, Mrs Demah found learning English a huge hurdle.
After years of English classes offered at the St Bakhita (the patron saint of Sudanese people) Centre behind HARDA, Mrs Demah got a job. Following advice from the employment program, she took her 17-year-old son with her to complete the application form. She now works as a school cleaner, and celebrated by buying her children clothes.
"It is very good, I am happy, I am working," she said.
Adol Kanach and Rose Lawa, both of whom arrived in Australia nearly 15 years ago as refugees from Sudan, have also found work, in the laundry of an aged care facility. Mrs Lawa said her English was improving: "We are speaking and laughing."
To celebrate their success, they had their heads wrapped in bright scarves by the 2 Sydney Stylists, Wanyika Mshila and Niwa Mburuja.
"Once you wear a head wrap, you feel like a queen," said Ms Mburuja.
Mrs Kanach said when the women arrived as refugees, Australians had helped them. "Now we need to work to help them, and others," she said.
Margaret Tong is one of a number of female refugees from north and south Sudan who have recently found full-time employment. At a workshop to celebrate their success, they had an African head wrapping session.Credit: Steven Siewert
At a meeting to review the employment program last week at the Edmund Rice Centre in Homebush, the women talked about how hard it was to face rejection and keep going.
"Having a job sets you free," said another woman at the meeting.
Mrs Tong talked about her liberating experience driving around the city: "I become like a taxi driver around Sydney. Everywhere I go, every corner I go. I put my music on, I listen to the GPS and I reach my destination. I am very proud of myself."
"And I want to say to you ladies who are new to the job, when you start a journey, you start slowly, slowly, and you will reach there," she said.