Graduate helps children cope with conflict

University of Queensland (UQ) graduate Angelina Hermon is helping children cope with conflict after opening a non-government organisation in Sri Lanka (Sensitizing Animators Foundation) to promote and practice social work.

Her passion in this field was ignited from one of the strongest memories Angelina has of her own childhood – surviving a bomb attack at her Sri Lankan school during a civil war that ravaged the country for three decades.

“Although I didn’t live in a direct war zone, blasts could go off anywhere so you always had to be on high alert,” she said.

“This was a fear that I grew up with – loud noises still frighten me even today.”

Ms Hermon decided that no child should ever have to live in fear, and by the time she left school she knew she wanted to help make a difference; she just didn’t know where to start.

Her journey began in 2000 with on-the-job training as a child rights and protection worker and later as a Child Protection Specialist at Save the Children (a non-government organisation in Sri Lanka).

“During this time I ventured into Sri Lankan war zones at the peak of the conflict, trying to reunite children with their families as they often got separated – some not even knowing if their parents were still alive,” she said.

“The two and a half years I spent running in and out of war zones was such a difficult period for me as no matter what I did, it seemed like it wasn’t enough.”

In 2010, Ms Hermon decided to take a break to reassess both her work and her own well-being. It was then that she stumbled across an advertisement for an AusAid scholarship to study social work in Australia at UQ.

“Social work is not a profession that is recognised in Sri Lanka, but I was interested to learn it as I wanted to put a name to what I had been practicing for the past 12 years,” she said.

“I found UQ teachers to be extremely accommodating to international students and they always had time for me. They actually care and inspire and don’t just read from a textbook.”

Having graduated last year, Ms Hermon completed her final field placement at the Social Care Centre in Sri Lanka, as she wanted to apply the skills she had learned in Australia to assist children in her home country.

Media: Angelina Hermon – info@saflk.org or angelina.hermon@uqconnect.edu.au or Kristen Bastian (UQ Communications) – k.bastian@uq.edu.au, (07) 3346 9279.