Grace Elikana
Grace Elikana left Sudan with her husband and child in 1991. They fled to Kenya, where they lived and worked as refugees and had three more children. They wanted a better life for their children. Friends who had made it to Australia told them that it was a peaceful country.
“We didn’t know anything about Australia,” said Grace. “But we heard it was a good place to settle, good for our kids to get an education, and we could study too. Our friends encouraged us to follow them here for our children.”
Grace and her children learned English in Sudan and Kenya so when they arrived that was a big advantage. Grace loves working within the community and does voluntary work with the National Democratic Alliance of Sudan. They help bring other Sudanese refugees to Australia and assist newly arrived refugees establish their lives.
Grace has spent the last three years in the western suburbs and has relied on organisations such as the Migrant Resource Centre (MRC) in the North-West Region. She does a lot of work for her community and has taken courses at the MRC that help her with her skills. She recently graduated from the Women’s Leadership Training Program which was run by the MRC and funded by a Victorian Government Women’s Community Leadership grant from the Office of Women’s Policy.
The program aimed to help local women to participate more actively and confidently in their own communities. It sought to build the confidence of women to move beyond their communities to participate more broadly in society and to develop the skills to organise events and activities. Fifteen women from diverse backgrounds completed the program, which covered topics such as building an effective working group, community event management and fundraising.
Grace and other Southern Sudanese women in the course are now planning to organise a formal group and invite other women from their community to join. “We want to support our young ones, for example in sports, and welcome new arrivals,” said Grace. They also plan to organise home visits and stage cultural events such as dances and exhibitions of craft. Grace is now a single mother and says that most of the women in the group are in her situation so they form a supportive network.
Grace enjoyed working with women from different backgrounds, which included Albanian, Vietnamese and Syrian. “The women from other cultures have been here much longer then us. They helped us to know how things work and it was good to work together.”
“The course was very helpful and useful,” said Grace. “It gave us new ideas and taught us about how to get things done. We are looking forward to getting the ball rolling and putting what we have learned into practice”.
Read more about the Women's Community Leadership Grants
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