Flemington   Kensington   Community   Mentoring   Program

Debbie

My experience with mentoring has been very rewarding. 

It has been rewarding because the young girl I am seeing needs help with
her homework and together we have made huge improvements in her work. 
Firstly she is completing and submitting work.  Before that she was not,
and was failing many subjects.  Secondly, I am acting as a link between
her school and her parents.  Something as straight forward as parent/teacher meetings were alien to E.S.L. parents. This has made a
big difference in our understanding of what is required for passing, what areas we need to focus on and what her strengths are as a student (who speaks 4 languages).

This year we have predominately been mentoring to Refugees.  Some
of the people are unassisted minors, others with some relatives and others with the whole family, as my experience has been. 

It has opened my eyes to the incredible hardships and distress being a refugee involves.  There are huge gaps in service provision and resources for refugees, my experience has shown me just how difficult and complex day to day living is. To someone who was not born here, may have no or little
family here, the everyday interactions and interpretations going on around us within our own community can be overwhelming.  To act as a facilitator and bridge many of these gaps is to me what mentoring is about.
Mentoring makes a huge difference.

Even if what you do is as simple as a phone call to see how things are going, or as complex and scary as giving driving lessons. It does make a difference.

Not only to who we mentor but in our own lives too.

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