On his first visit to Australia, Sudanese Bishop Joseph Gasi expressed his gratitude to St John's Primary, Auburn for their ongoing humanitarian assistance to Sudanese refugees ravaged by more than 21 years of war and famine in the south of his country.

Bishop Gasi, who is the first Sudanese bishop to visit Australia, told a large gathered Sudanese community at the school that he was pleased with the support and services they had received, including accommodation, English classes and access to tailored literacy lessons to establish themselves in their new communities.

"I can see that you are all very happy and feel very much at home," he said.

The 79-year-old Bishop from the Diocese of Tombura-Yambio, southern Sudan, was recently at the school as part of his month-long tour across Australia to see the learning services that have assisted the Sudanese in their settlement.

"I'm very happy about the way the children are learning. They are already speaking English, which is a big advantage," he said.
At St John's, 23% of the school's 303 students are Sudanese.
Principal Warren Hoppley said that this year enrolments of refugees from African backgrounds had reached 90.
"It's just been a wonderful good news story about how well they have settled in Australia despite tremendous difficulties and this is something that we really need to give thanks to God for," he said.

Bishop Gasi says he believes the biggest challenge now for schools in Australia will be to help Sudanese students integrate into mainstream classes from new arrivals classes.

"I don't want the Sudanese students to get left behind or to have difficulty integrating into the workforce.

"It would be wise to help them learn something useful. Teach them how to lay bricks and build houses, and train them in vocational areas."

Bishop Gasi appealed to educators to be patient with the more difficult and mischievous students, who are children, only slow to learn.

"Many of them have gone through a long suffering," he said. "They have seen a lot of evil things including people being shot on the street for the crimes they committed, sometimes their parents or relatives."

His gratitude was tempered by another call for support, in particular a desperate need for teachers to facilitate the return of refugees and internationally displaced people to southern Sudan, which already houses a population of over one million people.

Fr John Gbemboyo, the Bishop's Secretary, accompanying the Bishop during his tour, said they were also urging trained teachers from Australia to volunteer their skills to the diocese of Tombura-Yambio as one of the world's largest displaced populations begins to return home.

"We are dealing with an influx of 45,000 refugees returning from Congo, central Africa and northern Sudan," he said.

"Most of them are children and we do not have enough schools to accommodate all of them," he said.

"We appeal to any teachers who are willing to assist and help give them a basic understanding of the English language, mathematics and science."

Fr John says that there is a shortage of teachers back home, and those who are trained are shy to teach English.

"Currently we have only eight teachers for 800 kids."

To continue to meet the needs of this fastest-growing ethnic group nationally, Sydney's Catholic Education Office (CEO) in conjunction with the Parramatta CEO and Australian Catholic University have developed the 'Sudanese Pathways Project' to help train Sudanese refugees to embark on teaching careers.

The CEO, Sydney with St John's Primary also collected $2,970 recently to help the Bishop rebuild a new school.

For Further Information
Bernadette Zebec, Catholic Education Office, Leichhardt Tel: 9568 8223