For refugees and migrants, arriving and settling into a new country can be an extremely daunting and unfamiliar time. It can be a time of uncertainty and may involve navigating through many issues including language barriers, parenting in a new culture, finding education, employment and housing, immigration issues, financial hardship and mental health issues.
That’s where people like Dalal step in to provide assistance during this difficult transition.
Dalal is a Parent Resource Co-Ordinator for Anglicare Victoria’s Northern ParentZone. Dalal migrated to Australia from Iraq in 1993, essentially starting her life from scratch, even though she had completed a Diploma of Accounting. “At the time, there was not much support available, such as settlement services that exist nowadays. I didn’t know where to seek assistance from when I arrived in Australia.”
For Dalal, support from her family helped her settle and create her new life in Australia.
“My sister and her husband, who migrated to Australia a few years before we arrived sponsored us and helped us with paying our airfares, finding private rental accommodation and enrolling us with the Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP) to attend English classes. I found out there was an organisation called the Migrant Resource Centre (MRC) where I ended up doing my student placement,” says Dalal.
To date, Dalal’s entire community work life has been focused around helping newly arrived migrant and refugee people to resettle in the country, including working on parenting programs for culturally and linguistically diverse parents. The programs Dalal helps deliver with Anglicare Victoria include the Parent Building Solutions (Parenting in Australia), Less Stress Parenting and How to Parent Challenging Teenagers in Australia.
For newly arrived refugees settling in, it’s Dalal’s work over the years which has made a huge difference.
“I have worked closely with individual clients and with community groups to support them to understand their rights and responsibilities and to access services. I’ve also worked through many issues with migrants and refugees to provide support and assistance to help them overcome their settlement issues. These can include immigration, domestic violence, family relationships, parenting, employment, mental health and education issues.”
Recently, Dalal was named as an ambassador for Refugee Week, an annual week-long celebration of the positive contributions of refugees to Australian society.
“This week is very important to build community harmony and increase awareness of understanding about refugees, and to also build social cohesion, address negative perceptions and raise public awareness about refugees, their journey and contributions to Australia.”
“Refugees, asylum seekers and migrants need to be empowered to interact with a whole range of services in Australia.”
The Refugee Council of Australia has chosen “With courage let us all combine” as the theme for Refugee Week in Australia for 2017. To find out more about Refugee Week, visit http://www.refugeeweek.org.au/
