NORTHERN TERRITORY

Ms Christine Kute

 

Christine Kute is a Business Manager at the Department of Housing, Local Government & Regional Services (DHLGRS) formerly DLGH. Prior to that she worked as a Finance Officer at Charles Darwin University- Tropical Savannas CRC; a Settlement Worker with Anglicare’s Refugee & Migrant Settlement Service; and she was a Bilingual Officer at Anula Primary School liaising with and supporting teachers in their work with newly arrived African children in the Intensive English Unit.

 

She is committed to assisting and advocating for newly arrived migrants and refugees facing challenging settlement issues such as accessing mainstream services like Centrelink, Job employment agencies, legal Aid etc, liaising with various service providers on issues of concern which affect new and emerging communities, pursuing projects aimed at improving the quality of life for the new migrants.

 

Ms Kute is originally from Sudan and acquired her Bachelor of Business (Marketing) from Charles Darwin University, Darwin.

 

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SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Ms Assina Ntawumenya

 

My name is Assina Ntawumenya and I was born in Burundi but completed my education in Tanzania. I arrived in Australia as a refugee in 2004. Since that time, I have worked as a bilingual student support officer at Adelaide secondary school of English and as a Cultural worker at Gilles Plains Community Centre. I am currently finalising Social Work studies at the University of South Australia.

 

I have an extensive work experience in interpreting and I am very involved with my community holding the office the Deputy Chairperson of the Association of Burundian Community of South Australia. I am also very involved with African Women’s Federation of South Australia.

 

I was recently selected by the Minister for the Status of Women for inclusion in 2009 SA Women’s Honour Roll of 100 notable women serving the South Australian community.

 

 

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NSW

Ms Ijatu Jalloh

 

Ms Ijatu Jalloh comes from Sierra Leone and she has been in Australia since 2002.

 

She has been an active member of her community since her arrival – involved in coordination and organization of community activities on significant calendar events such as Refugee Week, International Women’s day or youths activities.

 

She has been running groups with families and women such as the FICT program through STARTTS, NEW Healthy women through Area Multicultural Health, Family Harmony from Black town MRC Integrated Humanitarian Settlement Services (IHSS) etc.

 

Ms Jalloh has been involved with the NSW Refugee Health as a bilingual Community educator for Refugees from Sierra Leone, facilitating groups for researchers, and undertaking research projects.

 

Since 2002 – 08 she has been engaged with paid and unpaid jobs in Sydney and other parts of NSW and the ACT. Throughout this time, she has been studying full time/ part time and parenting her kids as well.

 

In 2009 she completed 2 Diplomas in Community Services, this year she is studying full time Cert 111 in Business Administration.

 

Ms Ijatu Jalloh facilitates sessions with community groups for a research project and with families in cultural Transition (FICT).

 

 

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TASMANIA

Ms Aloysiane Misumba Likunga

 

Ms Aloysiane Misumba Likunga is the Vice-Chair of the Congolese Association of Hobart, a founding member of the African Communities Council of Tasmania and is heavily involved in a range of local and state-wide government and non-government initiatives to empower the African women and their communities.

 

She arrived in Tasmania in July 2007 as a refugee from Democratic Republic of Congo with two of her grandchildren. Prior to becoming a refugee in 2000, Aloysiane had worked in a range of positions for international auto and mining companies. Whilst living as a refugee in Zambia and Malawi Aloysiane worked in faith-based community initiatives.

 

Since arriving in 2007 Aloysiane has become a proactive leader for the Congolese and wider African community in Tasmania. She has positively contributed in Settlement issues at a number of conferences and seminars throughout Tasmania and nationally. Topics include Social Inclusion, Human Rights and Refugee Awareness amongst others.

 

She has taken a lead in networking the Congolese and African community with government and services to assist develop collaborative solutions. These include being a member of the Glenorchy Cultural Diversity Committee, Multicultural Council of Tasmania and attending regular dialogue meetings between communities and service providers, such as the Migrant Resource Centre (Southern Tas) Inc. Community Reference Group, and the Relationships Australia Tasmania’ Bridges Meeting.

 

Ms Likunga continues to assist positive settlement of new arrivals as a volunteer and as a casual worker in the Integrated Humanitarian Support Service (IHSS) program through Centacare Tas.
She has taken a lead at increasing cultural awareness on behalf of Congolese and African community in general through a number of forums in Tasmania. This includes public community celebrations, and as a founding member of Tasmanian’s Talking, a network of conversation groups (based on the Boston Dialogues) to combat issues of racism in Tasmania.

 

 

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VICTORIA

Dr Melika Yassin Sheik-Eldin

 

Dr Melika Yassin Sheik-Eldin is the Manager of Settlement Partnerships at AMES where she oversees and mentors the internationally recognized Community Guides Program.

 

Melika is a management member of the Horn of African Communities Net-work, a coordinator and co founder of the first Horn of African Newspaper in Australia – The AMBASSADOR. She is also an executive member of the Federation of African Communities Council of Australia and a board member of the Refugee Council of Australia. She represented AMES at the UNHCR Annual Conferences in Geneva from 2007 to 2009 and she was a consultant at the 2008 UNHCR Multi-disciplinary Mission to Sudan.

 

Dr Sheikh-Eldin is from Elitrea, involved in community work and she is an interpreter for Ethiopian and Eritrean Languages (Tigre, Tigrynia, Amharic and Arabic).

 

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QUEENSLAND

Ms Odette Tewfik

 

Ms Odette Tewfik is affiliated with Family Planning Queensland and is currently a member of the Princess Alexandra Multicultural Steering Committee, Brisbane South Multicultural Advisory Group and Youth Affairs Network of Queensland (YANQ). She has a long involvement in women’s issues, particularly from the perspective of culturally and linguistically diverse communities, having worked or volunteered in the areas of sexual assault, transcultural mental health, community education, youth homelessness, migrant support services, health promotion and domestic violence and as a member of the Ministerial Community Forum, Department of Communities last year.

 

Odette is well-known as an advocate for women’s rights and has considerable expertise and experience in representing consumer groups, including: people from rural, regional and remote; financially disadvantaged; people with a disability; people with chronic illness and disease; young and older people; the homeless; maternal and child health and disadvantaged new and emerging African communities.

 

Odette is a bilingual community educator and trainer. She has published articles about women’s health needs, including female genital mutilation, in various health-related magazines and newsletters. Odette has a number of academic qualifications in different areas such as Psychology and Philosophy, Economics and Administration Diplomas, a Business Management Degree (Industrial Relations and Information System) and certificates in community capacity and leadership building. She speaks, reads and writes Arabic and some French, which facilitates her communication with people coming from various backgrounds.