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Mr Akoc Manhiem - Director of the Sudanese Lost Boys Association of Australia (May 26 2007)
Salutations
The honourable Lindsay Tanner, Federal Member for Melbourne and Shadow Minister for Finance, the honourable Peter Batchelor minister for Victorian communities, Madam Councillor Jenny Farra, Mayor of the City of Yarra, Respected members of staff from the Department of Immigration, our friends from Salvation Army and our supporters; ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the Sudanese Lost Boys Association of Australia and on my own behalf, I welcome all of you to our tonight’s Appreciation Day Concert. My unreserved thanks to all of you for making it to this important function; I would like to express my particular thanks to each of those Volunteers who has been supporting us in different ways, especially those who worked tirelessly to put in place some measures that led to this day being a successful one, Thanks you so much.
The purpose of Appreciation Day
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, this is the first time that the Sudanese Lost Boys Association of Australia is hosting Appreciation Day, which we hope will become an annual event. The purpose of Appreciation Day is to give the Sudanese community a chance to express their appreciation for the welcome, opportunities and support provided by the Australian government and public through tax and donation. We started this appreciation day by offering our volunteer services to various programs around Melbourne including the Collingwood Children’s Farm and Salvation Army’s Red shield appeal. Now we present this concert to showcase to you our local Sudanese culture and some modern dancing.
About the Sudanese Lost Boys Association
The Sudanese Lost Boys Association of Australia is a non profit community organisation that strives to carry out in the longer term, some humanitarian activities in Southern Sudan. The goal is to bring together the Sudanese and Australian communities and promote awareness and understanding of why Sudanese people left their home country and came to Australia. We hope that by building relationships with the Australian people, we are able to establish an effective network for Sudanese people to overcome some of the difficulties involved in resettling in a new country. Our long term goal is to establish with the help of our Australian friends, vocational training centres in Southern Sudan in order to help the Sudanese youth back home to develop their skills and make a better future for Sudan.
Expression to involve all the Lost Boys and Australian young people and make Australia care for the Sudanese in Australia and the hardship of arriving to Australia
I would like to introduce you to an old Kenyan saying, “If you want to go quick, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
We as a community would like to go together. By sharing knowledge, love and care and equally we could go far.
There is also a Sudanese expression, that if a man or a woman is chased by a lion into a village, the people in the community would rescue her and kill the lion.
We the Sudanese people have ran from a lion to the safety of the Australian community. What is the lion? The lion is the political and security instability that has been plaguing the country for the last fifty years or so. The war brought about deaths, severe under-development, diseases famines and mass displacement which devastated and shattered the families, communities and the society as a whole.
For example our brothers and sisters in refugee camps and the people in Southern Sudan have faced and endured for a very long time, a lot of problems such as the outbreak of diseases, military fire, displacement, famines and starvation.
It was in this context that many Sudanese elders advised those who were given the opportunity to resettle in Australia and other parts of the World that go abroad and find ways of rebuilding the shattered livelihoods and that never to forget their roots; that don’t look or covets the wealth of others. Instead build and maintain friendships and networks above all get the knowledge, so as to one go back and make change in the lives of his/her people in Southern Sudan. That whatever knowledge one gets was given by God to help that person and his/her people. The lost boys therefore have not forgotten their roots; they are striving to realize their dreams of fulfilling the prevailing notion of them being parts of the sown seeds for the future of their motherland and her people. While pursuing this golden objective, the Sudanese community in Australia as a whole and the Lost Boys’ Association in particular is mindful and appreciative of the Australian norms and values and are equally working hard to contribute to the progress of their new country, the greater Australia.
The Sudanese Lost Boys Association wants to work with their fellow Australian citizens to build the capacity of the relationship between our two countries (Australia –Sudan). We want to work to create a diplomatic bond between the Australian government and the Government of South Sudan (GOSS) and the people of the besieged region. By Besiege I means to say the Southern Sudan has been besiege under both ideological, political, Military and economic siege by forces driven by greed, senseless desire to violate the universal rights of others to participate in the development and running of affairs of their nation.
As a starting point, we would like to start by working with the Victorian Government. Indeed we are doing exactly that and hope to expand the scope of our genuine, humble and non-profit efforts. Home is where you feel you belong and the Lost Boys/Girls feels comfortable to contribute to Australia as well as doing anything at their disposal to lift their beleaguered people out of the many challenges of underdevelopment back home.
It is very enlightening to see all of the Australians involved in supporting the Sudanese people. It was especially pleasing for the Sudanese Lost Boys Association of Australia to read the words of honourable Lindsay Tanner in newspapers particularly in the widely read Herald Sun Newspaper. In his unprecedented comments, the Shadow Finance Minister appealed and invited Australian public to make the Lost Boys of Sudan feel at home here. Indeed it was such a comforting and reassuring comment, a rare move by one of the nation’s high profile Politicians and decision makers.
Many refugees want to understand the structures of new life in Australia, and we want the Australian mainstream society to help in this regard. We the young Africans who have come to Australia on our own are working very hard to break the barriers of languages and cultures, so as to fit into the host society and minimize avenues of frictions, understanding and potential public discords.
Advice to encourage Sudanese youth to participate in community events
I would like to share with you some thoughts of young people who feel excluded and disconnected from the broader society: “I feel as if my house is a temporary dwelling place and not my home, in which I live. It is family which makes a place home.” We should therefore all remember the importance of keeping the family together and giving the Sudanese families in particular the time and opportunity to settle in this new country and work through the process of resettlement together with their children. Promoting the duty of care, love and affection and working extra hard in order to prevent family disintegration is part of our (Lost Boys’) broader aim in the Sudanese communities.
Working in the community is about offering yourself, communicating better and hoping that what you are doing is going to change the lives of others.
In the last two years, the Sudanese Lost Boys Association has started many projects, including an excursion to Mount Bulla, a community barbeque and social night on 2nd February this year that made news at broader scale, programs for English tutoring working with Melbourne High school students, a driving program for young Sudanese people, along with bigger ventures such as our volunteering program to Southern Sudan later this year. In this project, Australian people will help us to kill the lion which in this context means the issue of under-development and lack of capacity in Southern Sudan and we hope that you will want to take part in this important project.
If you feel overwhelmed or that you are too young to work for the community to make change, then you are limiting your powers and ability.
Also if we spend too much time reflecting on questions like what do I want to do, what are my goals, we may miss the chances that would enable us to change our world and discover better ways to treat everyone equally and fairly. All of us should take the opportunity to work together, and join our abilities to make changes in people’s lives, no matter what your background is.
I would like to encourage all the young Sudanese to be proactive in promoting positive activities and avoid being reactionaries in ways that lead them to nowhere but troubles. The youths should work together to make change in their new lives within the Australian and make themselves a good examples to the next generation of Southern Sudan, both in Australia and back home. All our growing children want is positive mentoring, they need role models they can trust, learn from and respect.
And I would like to invite the Australian communities to take this opportunity to gain an insight into the lives and experiences of the lost boys and the Sudanese people. This can be done by being a closer associate of the Sudanese people and willing to learn the cultural differences, so as to help nourishes the long cherished, spirit of Multiculturalism that make Australia unique as a one nation in diversity.
To this end, honourable Parliamentarians – Federal and State, Madam Mayor, Distinguished guests, my fellow colleagues in the Sudanese Lost Boys Organisation, ladies and gentlemen, I would like end my speech by reiterating my absolute happiness and thanks to all of you who made this Appreciation Day a unique and successful one. It is my hope and desire that the Appreciation will become an important part of the Australian and Victorian Calendar, a day on which the Sudanese people will go down in this nation’s history as a community of humble, hard working and grateful people who appreciate the opportunities that this nation of Australia offered them.
Akoc Manhiem
Director
Sudanese Lost Boys Association of Australia Inc.
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