MY APPLICATION FOR TASMANIAN TRANING AWARD
WHAT HAS BEEN HAPPENING IN 2010?
This year has been a busy year for me. I have been involved in lots of community development with the Hobart Campus ‘Students against Racism’ group. I am doing 2 pre-tertiary subjects as well as 2 Certificate subjects. I have joined the leadership group on Campus and taken on a leadership role in the ‘Students against Racism’ group. I am learning lots and developing my skills so that I am ready for the future.
After winning the School Award for Humanitarian Activities last year, our group, the ‘Hobart Campus Students against Racism’ have become bigger. We have more members and have been doing lots of activities. We have developed our presentation and added a workshop which can be adapted for different groups. We have done a number of presentations on campus as well as working with the Global Learning Centre to present at the ‘Blue print for a fairer world’ in June. This was a great opportunity because we worked with secondary school students and even delivered two workshops to primary aged students. We had to adapt our workshop so it would be fun and interesting for them. We included lost of games, songs and focused on things that were the same and things that were different between people.
Our group is organising a trip to Melbourne to do a workshop with the Western Young Peoples’ Independent Network who have been delivering workshops about racism for twenty years. This has involved meetings with other groups, fundraising and taking on jobs to make it happen. As one of the leaders I went with my teacher to discuss the possibility of making a partnership and applying for funding so we can develop the group further. This was interesting for me as I would like to be involved in this type of work in the future.
We organised Harmony week on campus which involved lots of events including musical performances, food, dance and the ‘Living in Between’ presentation. In the two and a half years I have been here, I feel things have changed on campus. More students accept us and know why people from other countries have come to live in Hobart. People know me and I am part of this place and I have the chance to help new students with a refugee background connect to the school.
We have got a lot of media coverage including Southern Cross news, ABC radio and articles in the Mercury. I have done a lot of interviews and I am getting better at expressing myself and telling about our project. It is important that we get this publicity so more people know more about what we are doing and why it is important.
There is prejudice and racism because people don’t understand or maybe they have never met somebody from another country such as Sudan and they do not know why they had to leave as refugees. We aim to change people’s attitude by sharing our stories and explaining what it is like to live between two cultures, two languages and two countries.
This has changed me in many ways. I have become confident to stand in front of people and talk about my story. I have been surprised that people want to listen and learn from my experience. This makes me feel happy because people will not judge me by the way I look but what they know about me. I’ve learnt a lot about organising people, events and activities. I know I can motivate people and I can be a leader. I really liked working with the young children because they are very open and tell you exactly what is in their head. Also my childhood was not enjoyable but when I work with young children I become like a child again and I can relax and play with them.
As well as our trip to Melbourne we have more presentations planned including speaking at the Amnesty International Conference in July and planning how we will fund and develop our group so that we can continue. I want to do well in my final year of school and look at the study and work options for next year. I have learnt so much and I want to give something back to the community of Tasmania. I want to use my skills in multimedia, my ability to communicate with people and my experience as a refugee from Sudan to change the world.
WHAT HAS BEEN HAPPENING IN 2010?
This year has been a busy year for me. I have been involved in lots of community development with the Hobart Campus ‘Students against Racism’ group. I am doing 2 pre-tertiary subjects as well as 2 Certificate subjects. I have joined the leadership group on Campus and taken on a leadership role in the ‘Students against Racism’ group. I am learning lots and developing my skills so that I am ready for the future.
After winning the School Award for Humanitarian Activities last year, our group, the ‘Hobart Campus Students against Racism’ have become bigger. We have more members and have been doing lots of activities. We have developed our presentation and added a workshop which can be adapted for different groups. We have done a number of presentations on campus as well as working with the Global Learning Centre to present at the ‘Blue print for a fairer world’ in June. This was a great opportunity because we worked with secondary school students and even delivered two workshops to primary aged students. We had to adapt our workshop so it would be fun and interesting for them. We included lost of games, songs and focused on things that were the same and things that were different between people.
Our group is organising a trip to Melbourne to do a workshop with the Western Young Peoples’ Independent Network who have been delivering workshops about racism for twenty years. This has involved meetings with other groups, fundraising and taking on jobs to make it happen. As one of the leaders I went with my teacher to discuss the possibility of making a partnership and applying for funding so we can develop the group further. This was interesting for me as I would like to be involved in this type of work in the future.
We organised Harmony week on campus which involved lots of events including musical performances, food, dance and the ‘Living in Between’ presentation. In the two and a half years I have been here, I feel things have changed on campus. More students accept us and know why people from other countries have come to live in Hobart. People know me and I am part of this place and I have the chance to help new students with a refugee background connect to the school.
We have got a lot of media coverage including Southern Cross news, ABC radio and articles in the Mercury. I have done a lot of interviews and I am getting better at expressing myself and telling about our project. It is important that we get this publicity so more people know more about what we are doing and why it is important.
There is prejudice and racism because people don’t understand or maybe they have never met somebody from another country such as Sudan and they do not know why they had to leave as refugees. We aim to change people’s attitude by sharing our stories and explaining what it is like to live between two cultures, two languages and two countries.
This has changed me in many ways. I have become confident to stand in front of people and talk about my story. I have been surprised that people want to listen and learn from my experience. This makes me feel happy because people will not judge me by the way I look but what they know about me. I’ve learnt a lot about organising people, events and activities. I know I can motivate people and I can be a leader. I really liked working with the young children because they are very open and tell you exactly what is in their head. Also my childhood was not enjoyable but when I work with young children I become like a child again and I can relax and play with them.
As well as our trip to Melbourne we have more presentations planned including speaking at the Amnesty International Conference in July and planning how we will fund and develop our group so that we can continue. I want to do well in my final year of school and look at the study and work options for next year. I have learnt so much and I want to give something back to the community of Tasmania. I want to use my skills in multimedia, my ability to communicate with people and my experience as a refugee from Sudan to change the world.
An excellent post Nene - and great progress in your work. It would be good to see some pictures here.
ReplyDeleteYour reflection on how you have changed and become more confident was an important section.
I think you are already changing the world just by being who you are in the world :-)
thank you Roger
ReplyDelete