The occupational therapist was employed by local government in two separate roles. Firstly, she acted as a case manager for newly arrived refugee entrants for the first 6 months after arrival. Through this federally funded programme, entrants arrived under the Special Humanitarian Program, meaning that the refugee entrants had been sponsored by Sudanese family or friends already settled in Australia. Generally, the new arrivals lived with their sponsor for the first 3–6 months to adjust and to pay back the debts incurred in the immigration process.

Settlement issues and living skills were addressed jointly by the Special Humanitarian Program sponsors and case manager. Typically, sponsors saw it as their responsibility to orientate the new arrivals to Australian culture; however, this created some problems as their level of understanding was not always as comprehensive as they believed it to be. Areas of priority in this role included access to services (health, education, children’s services and financial assistance), securing housing, the provision of a culturally appropriate household goods package and undertaking relevant life skills training (tenancy, budgeting, public transport, etc.). Secondly, through state government funding, the occupational therapist was employed as a community consultant as part of a pilot project which sought to build the capacity of emerging refugee communities. The outcomes of this position were to:

In addition to these tasks, roles also involved:

The local south Sudanese refugee community was diverse, made up of about 90 to 95 individuals, with more than half of them less than 12 years old. The ethnic mix was made up of five main tribes (Azande, Chollo, Nuer, Nuba and Dinka), with a roughly equal mix of Christians and Muslims. Originally, 11 Sudanese families chose to relocate from the state’s capital city to this regional town of 30 000 people. All had been in Australia for 2–3 years, spoke functional English, had car licences and were ready for work. Of the original families, eight remained after 18 months. They, in turn, sponsored another 11 families, couples and individuals. Developing language proficiency was the main focus of this group’s initial settlement period.

In addition to the core Sudanese community, there were also about 10 to 20 transient members, mostly youth, who worked at the local abattoir when they could and then disappeared back to the city for months on end. These individuals were harder to engage with, as they were relatively disconnected from the larger Sudanese community, generally ignoring the elders and demonstrating their own set of values, beliefs and behaviours. Their occasional antisocial behaviour was strongly disapproved of by the Sudanese community as it went against their cultural norms and was particularly detrimental to their reputation.