Ethiopian-Australian community leader speaks out on solving youth gang crisis

An Ethiopian-Australian woman honoured for her groundbreaking community work has spoken out about the African gang crisis and how to divert troubled youths from the streets.

We have to ‘find out why these kids are so angry’, Elleni Bereded-Samuel says.

An Ethiopian-Australian woman honoured for her tireless work helping migrants, refugees and asylum seekers says the “African gang” crisis is an Australian issue.

Elleni Bereded-Samuel, who was last month named a Member of the Order of Australia, said she was frustrated every time she heard the term, which tarred all Africans with the same brush.

“Africa is a continent made up of many countries and many different cultures and to say “African gang”, what does that even mean?,” she said.

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“(This youth violence) is not all Africans, it’s a small group — mainly from the Sudanese community — and it’s not an African issue, it’s an Australian issue.

“The majority of these kids are born here and grow up here, so we all have to take responsibility for fixing the problem.”

But government money being poured into a variety of programs was missing the mark, she said.

“Plenty of money has been spent on programs and other stuff but does it actually reach those young people?”, she said.

“Government should scrutinise their own agencies who have been given money to look after these kids,” she said.

She didn’t believe there was proper consultation and follow-ups to ensure funding was effective or reaching the youths that needed help, she said.

Elleni Bereded-Samuel, of Point Cook, has been made a Member of the Order of Australia.

Ms Bereded-Samuel, who co-founded the Horn of Africa Communities Network to help vulnerable newcomers adjust to life in Australia, said more needed to be done to keep people engaged in society.

“When kids drift away from school, instead of bashing the child’s family (by saying) ‘they don’t look after them, what are they doing about it?’, we should be asking why that kid drifted away from school,” she said.

“To solve a problem, you first have to find out what caused it.

“If (society, the government) is really, truly committed to doing something we have to talk to the community directly and find out why these kids are so angry and how we can help them.”

She said education and inclusion were key to solving most social problems.

A homework support program previously run by Horn of Africa Communities Network saw participants go on to become dentists, optometrists and lawyers.

“We didn’t have any (financial) support for that program and it no longer exists,” she said.

Her own children, Gabriel and Rediete have gone on to study psychology and law, respectively.

Ms Bereded-Samuel worked as a teacher and journalist in Ethiopia, while her husband Terefe Aborete was an agricultural engineer.

“Education has always been a really important thing my family — whether it’s educating newly arrived migrants, myself or my children,” Ms Bereded-Samuel said.

“When we sought political asylum to come to Australia, my husband and I spent hours in Footscray library using the computers, learning about this country and how to navigate our way through the system because we couldn’t get jobs in our fields.

“I always said to my children, ‘whether you are a cleaner or a doctor, you just be the best you can be at it’.”

Horn of Africa Communities Network now provides support and training programs for migrants, refugees and asylum seekers from many countries, including Vietnam, Myanmar and the Philippines.

Ms Bereded-Samuel has held a number of positions on boards, including at SBS Television and the Royal Women’s Hospital and was inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in 2006.

She said she was humbled to receive the prestigious honour on Australia Day and thanked the many people who had supported her, including her husband whom she “could not have done this without”.

“When I’m asked, I always tell people my background is Ethiopian but I’m Australian,” she said.

“We (Australians) are all migrants, except for the indigenous people and they are the only people who can say to me ‘go back to your own country’.”

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