Melbourne based social worker, Dianne Yoong has worked with hundreds of families and refugees for over 10 years. This experience has helped Dianne forge some strong and controversial opinions about society’s treatment of underprivileged people. Gianna Dalla-Vecchia reports.
- Dianna Yoong (Copyright © 2011, Kiam Yoong)
These days it seems that we all live busy and consuming lifestyles. Whether we immerse ourselves in full time work, study or community service, our time seems to slip away from us. Once you add our extra commitments, ‘me’ time soon becomes obsolete.
However, there is one person who, despite a degenerative neurological disease, throws her personal concerns aside, taking each day as it comes, as she works to improve the lives of society’s abused and oppressed.
Her name is Dianne Yoong and she is a well-regarded social worker, who has always dreamed to make a positive difference.
From the tender age of 10, Dianne became attune to the social injustices evident in her local community. Now at the age of 43, Dianne coordinates a Counselling and Adolescent Program in Melbourne, which assists children from newborns through to 17 who have experienced family violence.
For over 10 years, Dianne has been instrumental in assisting hundreds of needy families. But sadly, for the last four years, she has been fighting her own personal battle, dealing with the devastating illness, Multiple Sclerosis. Despite this hurdle, she remains determined to leave her stamp in the world of social work.
“I received the diagnosis three days after I turned 40. They called me saying that I had ten brain lesions,” said Dianne Yoong. “It’s being a difficult journey, working while dealing with the various symptoms of MS and relapses. Sometimes I’ll need to be away from work for several weeks at a time.”
“Having an unpredictable future has been a very difficult thing for me to deal with. I can’t over plan my life, therefore I just strive for markers instead,” said Dianne. “However, I have become a team leader since my diagnosis. So I am grateful that I continue to be recognised for the work I contribute.”
Dianne Yoong has had to emotionally deal with working with children who have experienced the worst forms of abuse, both physically and emotionally. Despite her dealing with these traumatic cases, Dianne’s personal values have helped see her through her day-to-day work.
“I have very strong values about social injustice and equality. Along with the theoretical frameworks of social work, my personal alignment to Buddhist principles such as compassion informs my values greatly. In this way, I find great inner peace.”
“Social work has such diversity and at its core, it’s about social injustice and the misfit between different systems for people within the broader context of society. It’s a very complex career.”
“I once worked with a young 10-year-old boy who lived a tragic life where his mum, for a number of personal reasons, constantly rejected him. As a consequence he was out on the streets a lot engaging in drug usage and so forth,” she said.
“One day, I met up with him at McDonalds. I remember looking into his eyes and seeing that they were red from substance abuse. I stopped and said to him, ‘When I say happy, you don’t know what that means, do you?’ And he just shook his head and said that he had no idea what I was talking about.”
“This was tragic as this young boy could not identify a simple emotion that most of us experience and take for granted in our lives”.
“Everybody deserves the dignity to be treated with respect. I listen to their journey and their hardship. To be invited into people’s lives and hearing their life story is an absolute position of privilege.”
Australia’s intake of asylum seekers seems to always cause controversy. The last few months have been no exception, as Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s implementation of a ‘five for one’ deal with Malaysian Prime Minister, Najib Tun Razak, has sparked great debate, dividing the country in two.
Dianne is far from a bystander when it comes to understanding the Australian government’s asylum seeker policy. Many years ago Dianne managed an Asylum Seeker Resource Centre in Melbourne, where she witnessed the injustices shown towards Australia’s asylum seekers.
“Australia’s treatment around detention centres is horrendous.”
“We all sit in our ivory towers and make judgements on things that we simply have no understanding of: the plight of people who have experienced political persecution in their own countries and who have seen death and war, civil up rest and poverty.”
“What a lot of people do not understand is that in Australia, compared to the United Kingdom and other countries, we are under our quota for the number of people we actually allow into the country as refugees, as we have signed the Human Rights Declaration Act.”
“Certainly, to say that some people are not legitimate refugees is correct. There would be some people that might take advantage of any kind of policy or opportunity to exit their country.”
“However I believe that this is a minority of people and most seeking refugee status are genuine.”
Dianne believes that the Australian media perpetuates skewed views in the broader community and contributes to society’s lack of understanding and simplistic views regarding the social injustices shown towards minority groups in the wider community, including that displayed to Australia’s asylum seekers.
“I am very critical of the media as they use sensationalism to scare the community.”
“People will say that we report independently on topics. Well that is absolute rubbish.”
“Every form of journalism is somewhat controlled and calculated. It is very difficult for a journalist to report on something that they truly believe in, for they are restricted by policies, Government, media enterprise and funding.”
“I really think that journalism is about entertaining the masses and making sure what is presented is what their audience wants to hear.”
“When I worked at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, the media published news articles which highlighted the fact that refugees were sowing their lips together for no real reason, describing the incidence as barbaric,” she said.
“It is this analysis of ‘difference’ that poses the greatest risk for dominant groups in society, which perpetuate policies that continue to oppress minority groups. An example of this was the introduction of the assimilation white paper policies that saw to the shameful genocide of aboriginal peoples in Australia’s history.”
“A more accurate understanding behind the story of asylum seekers sowing their lips together would demonstrate the desperation and trauma of people who are still treated like second class citizens. Unfortunately, the media don’t always understand these complexities and often align with dominate community and government values.”
“Journalism could be working for the good, but it simply doesn’t sell, it doesn’t always entertain and it isn’t what the masses want.”
“As a society, we seem to focus on trivial matters, which isolate us. We become immobilised and do nothing.”
Despite be diagnosed with a degenerative debilitating disease, Dianne has remained optimistic, embracing all that underpins her role as a social worker.
“Social work to me is a privileged career. There are moments where you feel so solely connected with another person. Many of these people’s stories merge with mine and have left a spiritual footprint in my heart,” she said. “At the end of the day I feel so grateful to have had such a meaningful and rewarding career.”
“In ten years, I don’t know where I see myself. I hope I will still able to walk and continue in my career. That’s my main goal. I still hope to embark on some kind of project. But if I didn’t get there, that would be ok too.”
“I just throw all my cards out to the universe and sometimes things just turn up. That’s where the magic is.”
- Dianne Yoong (Copyright © 2011, Kiam Yoong)
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