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Education & Training Changing Refugee Lives in Australia

Melbourne, 21 July 2009

Former Congolese refugee Mambe Albert Muyunga, who was awarded a Graduate Diploma of Psychotherapy in June this year, has found that education, training and support is the way to a new start in life in Australia.

Albert was a nurse at Sendwe Hospital in the Democratic Republic of Congo when the civil war forced him to flee his home, seeking protection in Zambia and then Botswana.

With this background, it was natural that Albert worked with the Red Cross Society to help restore health and raise awareness on public health issues in Dukwi refugee camp - and his skills and abilities in this field have continued to be enhanced and utilized since his resettlement to Australia in 2004.

Albert says his first priority was improving his language skills, enrolling at NMIT and attending English classes four days a week. It was also a crash course in Australian culture - “the English classes offered me an insight into the Australian way of living,” he says.

He is also thankful for the orientation programs run by Spectrum Migrant Resource Centre (SMRC) which included sessions on housing financial literacy, legal matters, health and other critical issues for new settlers.

To engage with the wider Australian society, Albert also started working as a volunteer at Dulin Inc, an aboriginal support and welfare agency.

While these initial support and education networks gave him a good start, Albert says life was still tough in his new country. “The rent is high, the living cost is escalating, bills are waiting to be paid and on the other hand your brothers and sisters back home are expecting something from you financially.”

Determined to overcome these pressures and contribute to the community, he joined a nursing agency, three months after touching down in Melbourne. Albert also worked a second job, waking up every day at 3am to get to work across town.

Working two jobs meant that he was able to stop accessing Centrelink payments six months after arriving in Australia, but it also meant he didn’t have time to keep up with his English classes.

To get around this, Albert enrolled to study English with doctors and nurses to improve his English at work.

And in between all of this, he continued to attend sessions at SMRC and do volunteer work with other newly arrived refugees.

In March 2007, Albert’s dedication to education and training paid off when he was offered a scholarship at the Cairnmillar Institute to study for a Graduate Diploma of Psychotherapy.

“I was doing only night shift at work. No-one from the community noticed that I was studying because I was still able to help whenever they called me to assist them,” he says proudly.

As part of his studies, Albert undertook a placement in the youth team at SMRC.

After the help given to him when he first arrived, Albert says “in my mind I had only SMRC as the place to go.”

Albert’s education and background made him a good fit when a position came up for an African Parenting Educator at SMRC, and his skills and hard work have since seen him take on other roles including as a Complex Case Support Worker.

He married in 2008, had his first child, and graduated from Cairnmillar just last month.

Ever determined to improve his skills and training, to keep supporting his family and community and contributing to Australian society, Albert has applied for a masters’ scholarship in psychotherapy.

Looking back on the many and varied training experiences he’s already had in Australia, Albert compares the life of a migrant to learning how to ride a bike.

“You need courage, patience and determination,” he says. “Nothing is impossible if you take control on how you are riding your bike. Forget about your past because when you fall down with the bike, you get up with cuts and bruises but that doesn’t stop you moving on. You learn from those mistakes.”

“I use the knowledge and skills gained through courses, reading, educational workshops and seminars to guide, inspire and motivate me to change my life for the better."