Cultural gap settles down

By Sarah Schwager
INITIATIVES to ease the settlement of the local Sudanese population have grown in Greater Dandenong in the past couple of months.
This comes after recent concerns in the community when a high concentration of Sudanese youths were hanging around the Noble Park Railway Station.
Since then there have been a number of initiatives and programs to help the settlement of the local Sudanese.
Senior Constable James Waterson from the Dandenong Police Multicultural Unit said the Sudanese culture was very different from Australia’s and it would take some time for them to adjust.
But Sen Const Waterson said problems highlighted in the media recently to do with Sudanese youths were not as bad as people thought.
“It’s not a huge problem,” he said.
“They just need a hand settling in.”
Sen Const Waterson said police had quickly found the cause of the problem at the Noble Park Railway Staion.
He said the Sudanese youths were congregating there because it was a good place to meet, halfway between Springvale and Dandenong.
It was normal for them to sit around and have a chat rather than go home, he said.
“They are used to being outside after hours,” he said.
“They didn’t realise they were doing anything wrong.”
Sen Const Waterson said the Multicultural Unit contacted Sudanese elders who had since told the youths not to hang around the station as they were giving a bad perception.
“We are looking at alternative venues for them to get together,” he said.
Sen Const Waterson said it was a matter of helping the Sudanese community adjust by providing various programs to help with their settlement.
“It’s the same issue we had with the Vietnamese 20 years ago, and the Italians and Greeks 30 or 40 years ago. They just need time to adjust and settle in.”
New programs have started at the South Central Region Migrant Resource Centre (MRC), Springvale Community Aid and Advice Bureau (SCAAB), Multicultural Youth Action Group (MYAG) and the Department of Human Service’s Refugee Minor Program, to name a few.
SCAAB’s Youth Links youth support worker, Jill McPhie, said they were looking at various ways of helping Sudanese youths to settle.
“Generally we assist young Sudanese people through our dropin service. They can come in with any queries or crisis,” Ms McPhie said.
She said they were looking at employing a young Sudanese person at the centre to help with Sudanese youths and also had an accommodation assistance program, with a lot of young Sudanese people being assisted with housing.
The MRC has also started a homework group for Sudanese students with various tutors including police officers and public servants. MYAG refugee youth worker Nancy Badr said the homework group had been very successful but as they had not been refunded for the program, they were not sure if it would be able to continue.
South Central Region MRC community planning officer Michelle Rowland said a forum, South Sudanese Community Action Network, had been very successful in improving settlement and prioritising where more work was needed.