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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-10-15 Daily Xml
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AWEIL COMMUNITY

Ms PORTOLESI (Hartley) (15:31): Today I have great pleasure in speaking about the Aweil community, a group which I have recently become aware of which have absolutely impressed me with their dedication to ensure that their refugee community is able to live peacefully and productively in our community whilst maintaining strong and important links to their home. Throughout this year, I have forged strong links with this community, and particularly with Mr Dominic Deng, their representative in Hartley. From Mr Deng I have learnt that there are about 100 households, which is quite a significant community.

By way of background, Aweil is in southern Sudan and has a population of about 4.5 million. Due to the ongoing troubles in the south of Sudan, which have been well documented, many families have escaped the war-torn area, seeking better lives for themselves and their families—not an unfamiliar story, unfortunately. Mr Deng's commitment to his community, both in the Aweil community and his Adelaideian community, is to be applauded. Like many migrants before him, he is keen to embrace his new home whilst maintaining his links with his past and his culture. He is seeking ways to make that a reality for others in his community. He appreciates the opportunities that he has in Australia but of course he respects his heritage, as do we.

Mr Deng approached my office back in May this year. He is working hard to formally establish an Aweil community group in South Australia. I arranged for him to meet (as he did) with Mr Simon Forrest, who is a very senior officer in the Attorney-General's Department, and that was a very productive meeting.

To that end, the Aweil community has applied for, and won, two multicultural grants: one to go towards the purchase of traditional costumes and one for office equipment to facilitate the establishment of the group, because Mr Deng believes (and I agree with him) that by giving people a sense of purpose and a sense of community the result will inevitably be a happier, more harmonious and productive community. The traditional dress will be used in part to get the young people in this community involved in Sudanese dance. The office equipment will allow the group to establish links with other Aweil communities around Australia and overseas.

On behalf of Mr Deng and the community he represents, I have been speaking with and advocating on their behalf to local organisations to find a suitable space for the group to conduct its dance practice. In addition, Mr Deng believes that soccer will provide a good outlet for his young people and, as such, I have been speaking to local clubs in our area in an attempt to progress this idea.

I am sure that the Aweil community living in Adelaide are very thankful for the time and effort Mr Deng is putting into his people. From a personal perspective, I am similarly very thankful to have such a dedicated and diligent community campaigner living in our area. Whilst looking to his new Adelaide home, Mr Deng and the Aweil community also look back to the home they left behind. During my most recent meeting with Mr Deng, he outlined his desire to help the lives of people still living in southern Sudan. Although the area is no longer as dangerous as it was, the population is currently being resettled and the reality is that there are only three hospitals to service the whole of southern Sudan's northern Bahr el Ghazal state, an area with a population of 1.7 million.

Médecins Sans Frontières, or Doctors Without Borders, works with this civil hospital doing amazing work but, as with any war-torn community, there is always more that can be done. The area has some of the worst health indicators anywhere in the world. The infant mortality rate is 150 for every 1,000 live births and the maternal mortality rate is 2,054 per 100,000. The crude mortality rate stands at 22 per 1,000. Between February and September last year, 2,745 children were admitted to the hospital for severe acute malnutrition.

Mr Deng—and I have been doing my best to assist him—has been sourcing donations of equipment to send back home and my office has been liaising with the Minister for Health to establish what assistance can be done. I congratulate Mr Deng, the community he represents, and I wish him the very best.

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