Graduate from Sudan, The (ATOM Study Guide)

This study guide to accompany The Graduate from Sudan, a documentary by Vida Films, has been written for secondary students. It provides information and suggestions for learning activities in English, Geography, Media, SOSE, Religious Education and curriculum projects about the issues facing refugees living in contemporary Australian society.

The Graduate from Sudan is part of SBS's Destination Australia series. Through telling personal stories, the Destination Australia series explores what it is like to be a refugee, to leave your country of birth, family and friends, usually under duress, and make a new home in Australia.

DURATION: 54 minutes

I always say I want to be a doctor. When I was in primary school everybody called me doctor, doctor. All my uncles and my family they were encouraging me because it was my passion. It's my dream.
– Victoria

Victoria Achut battled her way through medical school and escaped a civil war in Sudan, but her biggest struggle yet has been re-starting life in the 'lucky country' with three children, an absent husband and mounting bills. When we meet Victoria in Adelaide, the day before Christmas in 2007, she feels stuck between a rock and a hard place.

While husband Manon has returned to Sudan to start a business, Victoria and the children have remained in Australia. A peace treaty has been signed in Sudan but Victoria is in no rush to return. She wants her children, nine-year-old Wol, seven-year-old Adut and two-year-old Adheem to grow up in an environment that is safe.

Determined to become a doctor in Australia, Victoria finally secures an internship. If she makes it through the next year she will be allowed to practise as a doctor in Australia. She has dreamed of being Doctor Victoria since she was a little girl. Victoria is thirty-three years old and would rather to be earning a wage and paying taxes than receiving benefits from Centrelink.

The internship is in Luxton, a drought-ravaged country town three-hours drive from Adelaide. On the morning of the move, after finding new schools and childcare, organising a house to rent and while she is waiting for the moving van to show up, Victoria gets a phone call to say that due to some monumental bureaucratic misunderstanding the internship is not approved by the Medical Board. She is unemployed again.

As Victoria starts to contemplate returning to a still dangerous Sudan, the phone rings again. Victoria is offered an internship in a suburban Adelaide hospital. This time she is successful in gaining the position. Now it is up to Victoria to prove her qualifications. Victoria asks the hospital if she can act as an observer without pay while she waits for the documents to arrive from Sudan. They agree. She can go to seminars, observe on the wards and use the library.

An internship as a sole parent with three kids and without the support of extended family proves to be a bumpy ride. Victoria's life shifts into a higher gear. The alarm goes off at 6am. The family scramble to eat breakfast, find clothes, pack lunches, finish homework and be out of the door by 7.30am. Victoria drops Adheem at childcare, drops Wol and Adut at before-school care and then heads to the hospital. The afternoons are just as hectic, Victoria's long and tiring day continues once the family arrives home.

Four weeks later, just when the hospital is about to give her internship to someone else, the documents arrive. Victoria is overjoyed. She can register and start her intern year. However, when she gets to the Medical Board there is another hitch. They are concerned that it has been too long since Victoria finished her degree. Victoria must undergo a pre-assessment to prove that her skills and knowledge are up to date.

This setback is the last straw. Victoria decides that she will return to Sudan to complete her internship.