Snapshot of RMP 2009
Lamin gets back on track
Lamin, David and the young athletesLamin Tucker a former Olympian from Sierra Leone had worked as a cleaner and had a casual job as a nightclub security guard when he was matched up with David Carboni as his mentor.
Lamin said he was feeling lost and unsure of what step to take next. He needed financial security to support his young family – his wife Hawa and children had been in a refugee camp in Guinea and only recently been granted their visas to Australia to join him.
David has three active boys and through the network of the parents’ community he comes into regular contact with, set up athletic coaching clinics led by Lamin and himself as the assistant on Saturdays. They proved to be so popular that the numbers of participants have since doubled.
One little girl, Tori, is so keen to be trained by Lamin, that she and her mother travel every week from Croydon to Petersham. Some of the boys were also successful in securing positions in the NSW Premier Youth Soccer league.
David, motivated by the result they had achieved so far and the enthusiasm that Lamin generates amongst the young athletes continued his lobbying. He approached the head coach at Trinity Grammar School, Andrew Murphy who has created the Emerging Athletes Programme.
Happily, Lamin has been offered a position as an External Coach in the program.
David sees this partnership as rewarding for him too. “Instead of differences being a barrier to communication, my family and I have been enriched by meeting Lamin and his family, and getting to learn about their culture, customs and sometimes very difficult life experience.
“It is challenging to settle into a new country, but in my experience, it is achievable with opportunities and mutual regard. Lamin has been welcomed into the weekend running clinic by parents and teachers and is greatly respected by the students.”
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Refugee Mentoring
Michael Percival, Volunteer Mentor.
Skillquest Recruitment
“Becoming a refugee mentor is a tremendous learning experience for both mentor and mentee alike and the program itself is an essential vehicle in terms of providing support and guidance to new settlers within Australia”
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Freehills Join the Team
Amadu Bangura at Freehills with Senior Associates Brooke Massender, Adam Jeffrey and Graduate Alistair Carmichael.
Amadu Bangura a 2nd year law student initially came to The Refugee Mentoring Program (RMP) to join up as a volunteer mentor. As a former refugee, he felt that he had first hand knowledge about the difficulties new Australians face. Amadu was already very active in the community and as well as teaching English, also acts as a interpreter on call and translates documents for the elderly. However, it seemed that Amadu would benefit greatly from having his own potential nurtured by a mentor from the legal profession. We approached the Freehills Foundation and two of their legal team, Alistair Carmichael and Adam Jeffrey joined RMP as volunteers and formed a joint mentoring partnership with Amadu.
Alistair describes his experience of the mentoring process and the benefits that can accrue to both the mentor and mentee “I approached the opportunity to mentor with some trepidation. What could I, living a comfortable, safe, relatively sheltered life in Sydney, offer to someone who has seen first hand the collapse of civilised society, the indiscriminate murder of innocent people and worse? The trepidation dissipated as our mentoring relationship developed and I came to understand, and appreciate, that mentoring is about mutual growth, and as much the mentee teaching the mentor as it is about the mentor teaching the mentee. Through the mentoring program I have had the opportunity, and indeed the privilege, of getting to know a truly inspired individual. An individual who’s commitment to the community in general, and in particular people from his homeland adjusting to life in Sydney, is an example to us all.”
Adam speaks about the reciprocal and community benefits of being a mentor “the RMP has been a great opportunity for me to interact with the refugee community in a small (but important) way. It has been gratifying to see Amadu mature and develop new skills and ideas. It has also been interesting to learn about Amadu’s difficult background and the obstacles he has had to overcome to get to this point”.
Amadu confirms the positive career outcomes of his mentoring by the Freehils team, “I became involved in the Sydney Community College Refugee Mentoring Program and am truly impressed by the enthusiasm and energy of my mentors. I have managed to achieve excellent academic results … successfully clinched a job in my area of specialty the Macarthur Legal Centre. This would not have happened without the Refugee Mentoring Program.“
The RMP is a pilot project, which relies on collaboration and ongoing dialogue together with the enthusiasm, commitment and cultural interest of volunteers. No amount of financial incentive could draw the kind of talent we have been able to attract in our mentors and that is because what the RMP is setting out to do is aligned with their values.
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