Victor Victor

Victor Victor grew up under extraordinary circumstances in South Sudan during the civil war which embroiled that country for more than thirty years. Many members of Victor’s family were killed in the fighting and he also experienced famine during the drought period, 1995 to 1998. Victor lived in a part of South Sudan that not only had no infrastructure of any sort (electricity, water, etc) but also lacked the basic requirement of civilised society, education. (It is possible his part of South Sudan was deliberately treated in this way due to the high proportion of Christians in the region.

Victor Victor arrived in Victoria with his family in 2003. When he arrived he had no English skills and a very limited education. Victor and his family moved to Dandenong on the outskirts of Melbourne where he attended local secondary school completing V.C.E. two years ago. Victor was elected School Vice Captain and he was a Junior and Senior House Captain. He also represented his school at a United Nations sponsored youth conference and has been involved in various public speaking competitions. Victor had first hand experience of the difficulty faced by immigrants to Australia when members of his family were constantly rejected for employment. In the end they had to travel up to three hours a day to find the most menial work.
Since leaving school Victor has had a variety of jobs, mostly demanding far less than his ability. However, he now volunteers for the SAIL program (Sudanese Australia Integrated Learning program) which helps young and old Sudanese with learning English and becoming culturally adjusted to Australia. Victor has also been involved in the Footprint Enterprise, St Martin’s Youth Art Centre and the Multifaith Multicultural Youth Network. He is a Youth Patron of the New Hope Foundation. He also works full time with the Greater Dandenong Council as a youth worker and runs various programs for other young Sudanese, particularly young men.

In February this year, Victor was named the Young Leader in the Dandenong Awards program. Since then he has made a number of public appearances including recently on the ABC television program Q & A. On the program Victor stated his aim was to help other young African people get on in Australia.