Tony Oyet has been declared the overall winner of the travel grant to attend the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ non-governmental consultations in Geneva this month.
These consultations provide an opportunity for representatives from the refugee sector and the refugees themselves to share their views with the UNHCR on questions of international concern for refugee policy and advocacy.
The travel grant, which is jointly sponsored by the Refugee Council of Australia and Oxfam Australia, covers return flights to Geneva, accommodation and associated expenses for the duration of the UNHCR consultations.
It should be noted that Mr. Oyet is a capable community leader who has worked tirelessly with the new arrivals, on health and resettlement issues, in the emerging communities in South Australia.
His close involvement with the Sudanese community, in particular, has grown rapidly in recent years. And, as the founding member of the Acholi Community Association, he is acutely aware of the significant problems of adaptation and resettlement facing the new generation of African refugees in the Australian society today.
For Mr. Oyet though, it has been a long and difficult journey from the remote community of Juba in Southern Sudan to the city of Adelaide. Tony has also lived in Uganda and was in the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya for a couple of years before coming to Australia in 2003.
He leaves Adelaide for Geneva on the 23rd September 2007.
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