Introducing Elizabeth

We'd love to introduce you to Elizabeth.  Elizabeth is joining us from Western Australia and is taking part in this week's training, lobbying and networking.


Elizabeth is originally from South Sudan. She migrated to Australia in 1998 at the age of ten after living in Egypt for four years.  After completing year 12 Higher School Certificate in Sydney, Elizabeth and her family migrated to Perth where she began and completed B Social Science at Edith Cowan University, with a double major in Community and Welfare and Women’s Studies. 


With a strong passion for human rights, Elizabeth began her studies in Master of Human Rights at Curtin University WA where she is now completing her last year of the course.


Elizabeth is involved in the community as the Chairperson of the Sudanese Australian Youth Association in WA (SAYAWA) Inc. SAYAWA Inc. is an association made of twelve volunteer youth. The aim of the association is to act as a uniting body among the various groups in the community, engage young people through music, art and sporting programs, while also being the voice for the youth in the community. 


Elizabeth has also been involved in a number of forums and conferences advocating for the rights of young people. In 2011, Elizabeth attended the 2011 Refugee Conference in Sydney where she advocated for the issues affecting young people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds as a participant and presenter at the Youth Forum and the Women’s Dialogue. Elizabeth has also been a part of the African Studies of Australasia and the Pacific where she attended the ‘Africa 2011’ conference, presenting her first independent research paper on the issues concerning peace and development in the newly formed nation of South Sudan.  


Elizabeth has always been involved in volunteering initiatives with organisations such as Amnesty International, particularly on the Stop Violence Against Women campaign, to learn more about human rights and to try and make a difference in the community. She hopes that the knowledge she gains from her studies and experience in working with the community would prepare her for the social justice work she hopes to do in the future in her home country of South Sudan. She believes that education is the channel from which to challenge inequalities and the entrenched cycle of poverty and so dreams of opening up schools, particularly for girls in South Sudan to bring about the change that is so needed in the newly formed nation.  


Welcome Elizabeth!


The NIRWA Team