Nursing yourself back to a new life in Australia after detention

After nearly two years in detention, Sara* knew she faced a tough road before she and her family could prosper in Australia. She is university-educated and while working as a coronary nurse spent her spare time feeding her “hunger to learn” by learning to speak French and English.

Being half-way around the world in a country that does not speak your native tongue nor recognise your professional career, required determination. Sara, an Iranian Kurd, was a successful nurse of twelve years before she escaped persecution, and arrived in Australia in 2012. Her lifelong hunger to learn was broken after being placed in detention. When finally released, she was hit with another hurdle. Sara was unable to afford or access formal education or student loans as a person seeking asylum. For Sara, this was particularly debilitating.

“I had a lot of hardship to find my place in society, I was frustrated because I could not to study and find a job.”

“I looked into so many different options to study but couldn’t find anything. There weren’t any open scholarships and TAFE courses were so expensive because they only offer reduced fees if you have permanent residency,” says Sara.

The path to building a new life and a new career is a long road for people like Sara. Adding to the strain, Sara is the only person in her family who speaks English. Her family are dependent solely on her to manage a new life in Australia, and to fulfill daily chores like shopping and organising medical appointments.

With a little help from the ASRC Sara is now on the path to a new life in Australia.

The education program was able to assist Sara at the very time she needed and is now retraining as a nurse after securing a scholarship with the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Foundation. Finally, Sara had an opportunity to feed her hunger and her appetite to succeed and start the journey towards the career she loved and could best contribute back to society, nursing.

Although already fluent in English, Sara had a yearning to learn more and is participating in the ASRC’s free English language (IELTS) classes – the only one of its kind in Australia.

“When I got to the ASRC, they didn’t care whether I had permanent residency, they said they could help me and that was so great,” says Sara.

In time, Sara not only passed the difficult VET ASSESS test for a nursing course, but also recorded the best scores the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Foundation had ever had – an outstanding achievement, of which Sara can be rightly proud.

After three years of a clear destination, Sara has recently started her nursing scholarship and loving it, enthused by the opportunity to study again and learn from those with over 20 years’ nursing experience.

The ASRC’s support for Sara doesn’t end there: Sara and her family receive important legal assistance. Passing the IELTS test is a pre-requisite for non-Australians to prove their level of English proficiency, a vital step in Sara’s ability to commence working in Australia.

Sara’s talents and determination will reward her with a long and satisfying career in the years ahead and places like the ASRC play a key role in helping people seeking asylum overcome the numerous barriers they face.

About the Education Program

The ASRC’s education program provides education casework to members, working with them to develop an education pathway in order to fulfill the individual’s professional and personal goals. The program also provides English as an Additional Language (EAL) classes as well as IELTS classes across various levels to members. All classes are run by volunteer trained teachers who provide flexible and nurturing environments to learn and practice English language skills. The education program also supports members with enrollments into sponsored vocational study in order to improve the person’s employment opportunity on completion of their course.

*The name has been changed to protect their identity

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