There is an urgent need for youth programs in western Sydney for teenage Sudanese refugees, including a Sudanese youth centre, according to a new Anglicare report.

“The Sudan has experienced the longest-running war in Africa, spanning over 40 years, creating great hardship and many refugees,” said the report’s author Anglicare Southern Sudanese support worker Mayom Tulba Malual, who himself is a former refugee. “A number of young refugees who have experienced genocide, war and torture first-hand have come to Sydney and are going through the difficult process of resettling in Australia. Some are ‘lost boys’ – those who have come to Australia with no family at all.”

The report is based in part on a survey and focus groups with Sudanese young people. It was launched last month by Gary Hardgrave, Federal Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs.

Mr Malual also said that assistance is particularly required in the areas of education, training and employment to enable the young people to take their place as functioning members of society.

Many of the children come from Sudanese refugee camps in Africa, having received no schooling. But Anglicare claims despite the high need, government-funded tutoring for these school-aged refugees in Sydney is ad-hoc at best. “It is not unusual for a Sudanese teenager to start at an Australian high school and never have picked up a pen before,” Mr Malual said.

The report was launched along with a training kit to assist organisations that are working with small or emerging ethnic communities, such as the Southern Sudanese who find it difficult to access community and settlement-related services.