September Issue 2010
AGM Wednesday
20 October 2010
OPEN DAY
Saturday
16 October 2010
Companion House Assisting Survivors of Torture and Trauma Inc.
41 Templeton Street COOK ACT 2614 Telephone: (02) 6251 4550 Fax: (02) 6251 8550
Mailing Address: PO BOX 112 Jamison Centre ACT 2614
Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.companionhouse.org.au
Companion House Assisting Survivors of Torture and Trauma
Newsletter Contents
Staff Update & Introducing New Staff 2
Annual General Meeting 3
Immigration Advice and Application Assistance Scheme (IAAAS) 3
Life in translation: Working at Companion House 4
Learning from each other– Community Development 5
Understanding Burmese culture 6
Dinka Folktales from Sudan Advertisement 8
New Membership Form 2010-11 9
Soccer Day photos 11
Companion House photos 12
Staff Update
Page 2
Patrons:
Justice Elizabeth Evatt AO
Professor William Maley AM
Honorary Consultant:
Dr Lucy Ong
Director:
Clare Doube
Medical Team:
Tuija Kamppi
Silvia Salas Meyer
Dr Chris Phillips
Dr Joo-Inn Chew
Dr Alex Stevenson
Dr Katrina Anderson
Dr James Eldridge
Administration Team:
Loan Freeman
Sai Maung
Counselling Team:
Elizabeth Price
Robin Alderson-Smith
Jeby Jose
Deborah Nelson
Fiona Delacy
Ina Susljik
Complementary Therapy:
Rosemary Taylor
Community Development Team:
Vesna Golic
Hong Sar Channaibanya
Sandra Lloyd
Training, Advocacy, and Community
Awareness Team:
Glenn Flanagan
James Atem Mayen
Directly Employed Interpreters:
Siri Mon Chan
Eh Paw Thorpe
Elizabeth Lawmi Thangpueh
Bookkeeper/ Accountant:
Gen Hemsley – Wilken
Complex Case Manager:
Pam Mitchell
IT Support:
Eric Warner
Introducing Tuija Kamppi, our new Practice
Nurse and Medical Team Leader
My name is Tuija Kamppi. I have started a new work
chapter and journey at Companion House as a
Practice Nurse since the end of June 2010. My
experience as a Registered Nurse is in Adult Health
and includes both Clinical and Community work. I
enjoy caring for people from various cultural
backgrounds and we in Australia certainly have this
opportunity. My interest in refugee clients and their
health care brings me to Companion House. I hope to
make some difference to the lives of refugees and
asylum seekers through my work here.
Introducing Jeby Jose, our new Early
Intervention Counsellor Advocate
Hi All, I am Jeby Jose, and glad to be a member of the
Companion House family by joining as Early
Intervention Counsellor/Advocate on 26th July 2010.
Let me take you to my little world. I am a person from
the Social Work field and completed a Master of Social
Work with specialization in Medical and Psychiatric
Social Work in the year 2004 from the University of
Calicut, Kerala, India. My career in Social Work
started in the year 2004 working as a Geriatric care
Manager and I continued in various roles such as
Counsellor, Social Worker, Field Work Coordinator
cum Lecturer, Remedial Educator and Psychiatric
Social Worker. My fields of interest are research,
counselling, group work and hospital social work. With
an intention to advance my professional career I
(Continued on page 5)
Page 3
September Issue 2010
The Immigration Advice and Application Assistance
Scheme is now offered in the ACT region through
Companion House.
The IAAAS can help people with advice and some
people with application support if they are living in the
Australian community and are seeking a protection
visa.
The IAAAS can also help some other people with
advice if they are a disadvantaged sponsor of a spouse
or family related visa applicant.
To be eligible for IAAAS services you must be
experiencing financial hardship and meet criteria which
indicate vulnerable personal circumstances.
If you would like to enquire about the IAAAS service
please call Companion House on 6251 4550.
The IAAAS will be launched at Companion House on
Wednesday September 15th 10:30-11:30am.
All members are very welcome to attend and find out
more about this service.
Dear Members of Companion House
You are invited to come to
the
Companion House
Annual General Meeting
Where: In the Community Hall of our new premises
(41 Templeton Street Cook in the old Cook Primary School
next to the Cook shops)
When: Wed Oct 20th 5.30 for 6.00pm
Refreshments will be provided
IAAAS - The Immigration Advice and Application
Assistance Scheme
Page 4
Put your old cards to good use
Do you have old cards (Christmas, birthday, new baby etc) and would like to put them to
good use? We can use them at Companion House. We recycle the pictures at the front
and sell the cards to help with fundraising.
Please drop off old cards any time during office hours to the reception desk at
Companion House.
Life in Translation: working at Companion House Dr Joo-Inn Chew
A toddler who bolts when he hears the New Year‟s
Eve fireworks, assuming they are gunshots. A woman
who trekked hours through the jungle on horseback in
labour to reach the nearest medical clinic. A man with
injuries from torture. A teenager who has spent his
entire life in refugee camp. A woman who saw three
of her four children die. A long-lost twin brother
discovered safe across the border.
The voice of the telephone interpreter - clam, flowing,
even - is the bridge between my safe little office, and
an unimaginable world. My patients sit across from
me, rugged up in secondhand jumpers against the
Canberra winter, a million miles from Darfur, Burma,
Iran, and Sierra Leone. But their stories fill the room.
At times it can be overwhelming, but most days we
focus on what can be done now. People rarely want
to look back, at least at first. Their energies go
towards trying to secure a life in Australia: housing,
language lessons, kids in school, teeth fixed, the
baroque intricacies of government and social services.
It is often the course of our year or two together that
symptoms and stories come out.
Trauma is frequently manifest in headaches,
sleeplessness, abdominal pain, dizziness; symptoms
unexplained after screening for anaemia, infections and
other common diseases. Our counselors do their best
across thickets of cultural differences. Their support is
a welcome resource I miss in mainstream general
practice.
Likewise, we in the medical clinic do the ever-
fascinating translation dance, stepping up with
interpretations of symptoms, stepping back with new
understandings or perplexities, clumsily waltzing about
with our patients trying to forge common
understanding. It took me years to find out that in
Dinka, „heart‟ and „lung‟ are the same word; that it‟s
common for Sudanese to perceive rectal bleeding as
fatal; and that the smiling faces of families do not mean
everything is ok.
People‟s resilience and recovery humble me. There
are smiles and laughter as often as anxiety and tears in
the consulting room. Children in particular seem to
charge into their new life, quick to become fluent in
the cultures and languages around them. Years later
they stride up in the supermarket, gorgeous confident
teenagers. The distance people can travel, the change
they can make, and the trauma they can live with,
astound me each day I work at Companion House. I
take less for granted, and appreciate more and more
what it is to be human.
Dr. Joo-Inn Chew is a GP at Companion House. This
article first appeared in GP ACTION, the newsletter
of the ACT Division of General Practice.
Learning from each other
Page 5
September Issue 2010
their community life in Australia. We talked about the
great achievements that these communities have made
over the years in Canberra and Goulburn. They told us
about their goals and dreams, and talked about the
challenges that they might have on their journey
towards achieving their goals. We learnt a lot from
that meeting and our work now is very much inspired
by what we heard then.
Currently we are focused on building connections
between different communities, a goal identified by
participants at the Community Exchange Forum.
Together with community representatives we will
work towards building stronger relationships between
communities and different services over the coming 12
months. We are excited about the opportunities that
this works brings.
The Community Development team are: Sandra Lloyd
(Project Officer), Hongsar Channaibanya (Project
Officer) and Vesna Golic (Team Leader).
Vesna Golic writes about the Community
Development team at Companion House
The Community Development team at Companion
House works in cooperation with communities, their
associations, groups, and individuals. Our goal is to
assist communities in their efforts to become strong
and supportive for each other, as they build their place
in Australian society.
All our activities start from talking to communities
about what they want to achieve and how we can help
them work towards those achievements. We form
community groups in which people share their
experience in settling in Australia. They have an
opportunity to talk about the positive things about
their lives here, and share ideas on how to deal with
things that are not so easy. They make contacts with
each other, learn from each other and we also share
our knowledge and experience with them.
Sometimes we talk about the differences in parenting
in Australia and in the country of origin. Other times
we talk about family strength and how to maintain it
when life in Australia is so different from life before.
We also share experiences dealing with different
services, such as Centrelink, employment services,
schools, and hospitals.
In our groups we also talk about how to maintain good
health, cook healthy food, and take care of ourselves
and our families. But as well whole families and
communities come together to have fun, play sport,
have a family day out, welcome new community
members at barbeques and picnics, dance and play. We
also work closely with community leaders and
representatives in building the strengths they need for
their work with communities.
In May 2010 we organised a Community Exchange
Forum where representatives of the Sudanese, Karen,
Mon, Chin, Sierra Leone and Hazara communities
came together to exchange their experience of building
moved to Australia in April 2010 with my husband and
little boy.
Being a person from India, which is a place of diverse
cultures, languages and traditions I found this setting an
apt place for me to start with. In fact, at the moment I
am in a world of new faces, new culture, new
atmosphere …….the whole thing new. Although, I feel
quite relaxed and wonderful because of the group of
people around me. It gives me a lot of enjoyment to
perform my current role which is full of exciting
challenges and opportunities. I love the team
surrounding me who guides and motivates me with
their years of experience and knowledge. I appreciate
Companion House for giving me such a great opening
to work here and I look forward to build up my
professional career as an expert counselor with the
opportunities that I gain from here………Thank You.
(Continued from page 2)
Understanding Burmese Culture
Page 6
for about 68 percent of the population. Other major
ethnic groups include the Shan (about four million),
Karen (about three million), Arakanese or Rakhine
(about two million), Chinese (over one million), Chin
(over one million), Wa (about one million), Mon
(about one million), Indians and Bengalis (about one
million), Jingpho (about less than one million), and
Palaung (less than one million). With the exception of
the Chinese, Indian, and Belgalis, each minority group
occupies a relatively distinct area. You can read more
on Burma at www.everyculture.com/Bo-Co/Burma.html
I was born in Burma and lived there until the age of 24.
I then left the country and lived in Thailand until the
age of 29, and finally migrated to Australia in 1997.
During my time in Burma I had an opportunity to grow
up in a Buddhist monastic institution for over ten years
from the age of 13 to 23. I undertook basic and higher
Buddhist education, and was informed by a wealth of
knowledge of Burmese culture through reading,
studying and teaching. Now I am living with, at least,
three cultures: a Mon ethnicity, being a Burmese
citizen, and now the Australian way of life as well.
Some might think this is unique, but I have coped with
all the differences regardless of the norms and beliefs
in my new environment. Others too might live with
more than one culture. To better understand
Burmese culture it is also important to understand the
country‟s history. Burmese is a common term to all
people in Burma, but remember that each ethnic group
preserves their own cultural identity.
When we consider traditions at home, respecting
adults or parents has been commonly valued.
Preserving the principle of Buddhism is also important
to many people, although not all people in Burma are
Buddhist. Parents expect some return from children
when they are getting old, and serving and caring for
parents has been considered a good practice and
believed to be meritorious.
(Continued on page 7)
A personal view, by Hong Sar Channaibanya
Burma is a multi-ethnic country with a long history of
civil war. Minorities from Burma do not appreciate
being called “Burmese”. They often prefer to refer to
their own identities such as Karen, Kachin, and Mon
etc. This article does not focus on one of these
particular ethnic groups, but rather on people in
Burma generally, especially people in lower Burma.
It is also important to stress that readers should always
consider the character or behavior of each individual
person rather a group or ethnicity when thinking about
people from Burma. There are many other resources
on Burma in the internet for greater understanding of
its people and their cultures. Additional reading can be
found on the following link (www.everyculture.com/Bo-
Co/Burma.html).
Culture is about people, and shared beliefs and
customs. It is about our attitudes and how we behave,
as well as about language and dress. Culture is a living
process, and can change or be modified, due to the
past or the present environment. It is a mixing pot like
a flower in the garden. The flowers can turn into
different colours from the same pot. The mixing pot
shows us something of the endless diversity of human
nature.
Burmese culture is new to many in the Australian
community. Since I first arrived here, community
workers and people from various agencies have asked
me many questions about Burmese culture. I will offer
some information based on my own experiences and I
hope you find it useful.
To start with, here is some interesting information on
the demography of Burma:
The official population figure in 1995 was 44.74 million,
but it may range from 41.7 million to 47 million.
Linguists have identified 110 distinct ethnolinguistic
groups, and the government recognizes 135 ethnic
groups (referred to as races). The Burmese account
Page 7
September Issue 2010
A typical belief is that families should share common
burdens. Many people believe relationships between
parents and children should be exceptionally strong
both in good or bad times. Assisting your parents with
money and in other material ways is often widely
appreciated in the community.
When talking about culture we need to acknowledge
the perspective of gender. Burmese men, kings and
presidents have been controlling society with absolute
power for thousands of years. In traditional families
men have earned a living and women have managed
domestic issues in a household. However, some
women prefer to earn and work and this is not a
problem.
Family cohesion is highly valued, and in the home
country parents have played a key role in dealing with
domestic crises and in the mediation process. Siblings
are very important when a crisis has occurred in the
family. Often elder sisters will take a role, like their
mother‟s role, if their mother is not at home during an
emergency.
Burmese culture is more communal, and individualism
is traditionally less highly valued. Families will hold
cooking and eating get-togethers for one to three days
at the parents‟ homes during festival seasons. Some
grandparents look after their grandchildren in the
home country without financial reward, but they are
also cared for by all their sons and daughters. If we
compare the beliefs of urban people and rural people,
wealthier and poorer people, highly educated or less
well educated people, of course we will discover
different family practices and attitudes.
The Burmese community maintains social harmony
through festivals and spiritual blessing either at home
or at the temples. Meditation courses are widely open
for the public around the country. Buddhist monks
play a key role in providing community harmony.
(Continued from page 6) Burma‟s culture might seem poor in wealth and
appearance, but it is rich in soul, in each of its
communities.
I have been living from my childhood to my teenage
years in different family settings and Buddhist
institutions for over ten years, and now I have also
been living in a western culture for over ten years. I
speak my native language, Mon and my second language
Burmese, and a third Thai, orally, as well as English all
by the age of 30. These have helped me to adapt and
cope with differences. It is time for us all to think first
about the issue of peoples‟ characters rather than only
on different cultures. The best way to overcome
cultural barriers is to first to try to listen to people‟s
needs and understand the social environment around
them.
Hong Sar is a Community Development Project Officer at
Companion House. He facilitates group sessions on
“Families in Cultural Transition” for people who have
settled in the ACT and NSW region from 2006 to the
current. Comments are welcomed to this article by email:
[email protected]. This
article is his personal opinion only and it is not necessarily
the opinion of Companion House.
Thank you for the music
We would like to say a big Thank You
to Brendon Clark of Davis Wheeler
Music in Phillip who recently donated
a new guitar to one of our clients at
Companion House
Page 8
Page 9
September Issue 2010
The Sixth Annual World
Refugee Day Soccer
Tournament
Page 10
Congratulations to the Liberian team from
Goulburn for winning the tournament! The Karen
team were the very strong runners up on the day. Six
teams participated this year, Sudanese, Sierra Leone,
Mon, Chin and Karen. This was the first time teams
from the Chin and Liberian teams from Goulburn
competed.
Thank you to all the organisations who helped out on
the day, with a big special thank you to Radford
College for their delicious BBQ, the Australian
Institute of Sport for giving us the venue, Canberra
Milk for their donation, and Kaleen Sports Club for
use of their bus, U-Turn Youth Service Belconnen for
helping us out with soccer balls, prizes and great show
bags, and Dickson SIEC for coming to help out on the
day. Thanks also to all the wonderful individuals who
helped out as well on the day!
(See photos on the next page)
Come and celebrate at our
Open Day
Saturday October 16th
11am to 3pm
Spring is coming and so is the Open Day of the Cook
Community Hub (41 Templeton Street Cook) where
the new Companion House office is located.
This event will be an opportunity to join the Cook and
surrounding community to celebrate with us. The
program for the day will include: workshops with
theatre groups; choir and dance performances; a range
of art and craft exhibitions; quilting demonstrations;
children‟s activities; and open day tours with a range of
Hub tenant organisations.
The Cook Community Hub is an initiative of the ACT
Department of Disability, Housing and Community
Services. Apart from Companion House, other Cook
Community Hub tenants include:
Canberra Quilters
The Heraldry & Genealogy Society of Canberra
U3A (University of the Third Age)
Free-Rain Theatre Company
Supa Productions
Phoenix Players
Classical Ballet Centre
ACT Playgroups Association Incorporated
Community Programs Association Inc (LEAD)
Autism Asperger Building Blocks
Koala Playschool Parents Association
We hope you can join us on the 16th.
Cook Community
Hub
Disclaimer
The views expressed in newsletter articles are the
views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the
views and opinions of Companion House.
Soccer photos on page 11
1) The Chin team from Goulburn played a fantastic game
2) The Karen team played a strong game and came second over all
3) The team captain of the winning Liberian team and ACT
Minister for Multicultural Affairs Joy Burch
4) The end of an exciting day!
5) The Sudanese team were really inspiring players
6) The Mon team showed great skill and team spirit
7) The Liberian team from Goulburn – the champions for 2010
8) The Sierra Leone team were amazing players – and last years‟
winners
Sixth Annual Refugee Day Soccer Tournament
Page 11
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Don‟t forget that Companion House has moved to 41 Templeton Street Cook (in the old Cook Primary
School) near the Cook shops
Reception area
Entrance and play ground Entrance… you are welcome
Inside Companion House
Please all our office on
6251 4550 to buy your
Companion House
calendar for 2011 with
beautiful artwork by
children from a refugee
background
$15 if picked up from
the office
$20 if you would like us
to post it to you