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Betty

BETTY

"But you have to deal with it. If you don't have strength or self-esteem you will never get through it."

Betty's life story so far is an extraordinary journey of survival and tenacity. Listening to her speak, with such maturity and insight, it's hard to believe she is only twenty years old. Betty hasn't had what we would call an ordinary childhood. Responsibility came earlier to her than many children would experience in our community. These experiences have left a deep impression on Betty, and inform her choices and sense of responsibility today.

She is an active volunteer with Western Young People's Independent Network (WYPIN), involved with the group since she arrived in Australia four years ago. She helps other refugees and migrants find their feet, just as she once was helped. Trained through Melbourne City Mission Western, she is on call, helping other new arrivals with practical advice such as how to use the public transport system or how to find a place to live.

During high school, she volunteered at a childcare centre leaving school at 3pm every day and squeezing in a couple of hours to help young children of various African ethnicities who did not speak any English. Betty speaks five languages other than English. What inspires this young woman? "It's about giving back. When I first came here I didn't know how to catch a train. Somebody showed me. Whenever I help or show somebody what they need I feel excited, I am giving back to society. But I benefit as well by them saying thankyou".

"I lived in refugee camps in Kenya with my brother and sister (she has five other sisters) for over eleven years. Before that I was in Ethiopia for two years. I didn't know where the rest of my family were. Even my mum, I just saw her two years ago. My mum went for fresh water, when the war broke out in my village in Sudan. I was with my sister; we all started running in different ways. Mum ran to our house but we weren't there. I hadn't seen her for fourteen years. I was caring for the injured during our long walks. I learnt how to cook when I was four, wash wounds and give people injections. So, because of my previous experience I think, 'Well why not? I was doing it when I was four, I am twenty now, I can do more than when I was four!'"

After arriving in Australia, she spent two weeks at an English learning centre, before starting year nine. "There were no schools in the camps, I learnt how to write ABCD from some volunteers. There are thousands of kids in the camps and no-one goes to school because they have to look for food, fresh water or their family. Starting school in Australia was a hard process, I kept silent in the class. People would say, 'What is she doing here? She is so stupid.' 'Why are you so tall and so dark?' I felt like dropping out. But I thought, 'I cannot leave school no matter how they talk to me.' Some African people stop going because of racism and bullying. But you have to deal with it. If you don't have strength or self esteem you will never get through it" .

Betty is currently undertaking a traineeship as an aged care nurse, and she hopes to study nursing at university next year, maybe even medicine one day. She is inspired by a story she read about a ninety-three year old woman halfway through her medical degree. "She didn't even have a primary school education, and now she is going to be a doctor. If I think about that it gives me a vision like, 'Oh! If she can do it why not me?' It's never too late."