Journey with the Sudanese Refugee Community

Teacher aide Tania Withers and Sudanese students at St Joseph’s School, Upper Hutt.

John Young, Principal, St Joseph’s School, Upper Hutt.

In Term Four 2003 St Joseph’s School enrolled eight children from three Sudanese refugee families. Two of these families had arrived straight from the Mangere Refugee Centre and the third had been in the country for three years.

Within 18 months the number of Sudanese children had grown to 18. This group included not only families who were new to NZ but also others transferring from state schools who were seeking a school that was supportive of their culture.

In late 2005 St Joseph’s was asked by the MoE to manage a Computers in Homes Project for 20 Sudanese families in the Hutt Valley.

This contract was followed by two year-long projects funded by the Ministry of Social Development to work in the area of community sustainability and home-school partnership with the Hutt Valley refugee community.

These two projects allowed the school to employ a Sudanese community development worker, Robert Byer. At the time of writing this article Robert’s employment is moving from St Joseph’s to Wellington-based Changemakers Refugee Forum.

The school’s involvement with the refugee community over the last five years has been a learning journey. It has also allowed the school to live the Social Justice message of our Catholic Character.

The contract has seen Robert working on school partnerships through a series of workshops that brought teachers and other staff from a number of schools together.

Parent workshops have been run in the area of health, housing, employment and taxation. Sensitive issues such as domestic violence have been explored.

The most recent project has been a 10 week youth leadership course with Johnsonville-based youth organisation Challenge 2000. This programme included elements of relationship skills, goal setting and intergenerational conflict.

The journey has required the school to reflect on its skills and practices in teaching English as a second language. During the five years we have seen a number of our Sudanese children make a great deal of progress.

However, the refugee experience means that children have not only experienced broken or no primary education, but they have also witnessed a number of very traumatic experiences. As a result, they can take a long time to master the English language and literacy requirements of a NZ primary school.

The success of their experience at school has depended on the skill and hard work of a large number of teachers and other staff at St Joseph’s.

In particular, teacher aide Tania Withers worked tirelessly with the children, not only in the areas of learning English but in health and pastoral care.

Her support extended to hours ensuring the children experienced that most Kiwi of all experiences, Saturday morning sport.

The generosity, support and interest of a number of parishioners of St Joseph’s Upper Hutt and Our Lady of Grace Heretaunga were also invaluable in working with this community.

In conclusion, our Catholic schools are based on traditions of working with those children most in need. The last five years’ experience at St Joseph’s and the partnership between the school and the Sudanese community have allowed the school to grow in witness to its Catholic Character.

This story is courtesy of Good News June edition of the NZ Catholic Education Office.